National School Bus Safety Week – October 20-24, 2025
National School Bus Safety Week – October 20-24, 2025
The Pendleton School District and First Student, the transportation company that transports PSD students, will focus on safety during National School Bus Safety Week, October 20-24.
First Student has a whole week, called Safety Stand-Down Week, to reinforce their focus on safety and their mission to provide the safest ride to and from school. A Safety Stand-Down is an event where leaders pause to talk directly to employees about safety and provide education and training on specific safety topics. Some activities they will do during the safety week are Mirror Grid Monday, Turning Tuesday and Wind-y Wednesday (serpentine route set up), safety meeting and pledges.
“It is a learning and reminding week, but also a fun week as well,” said Patrick Phillips, Senior Location Manager at First Student.
Here are some safety strategies First Student and the district are using this school year:
First Serves – a positive reinforcement coaching for students instead of a referral, disciplinary system. Bus drivers utilize Bus Bucks to reward appropriate behavior on the bus; each school has a reward system for the bucks.
Kindergarten bus tags –students at the Pendleton Early Learning Center wear bright orange tags attached to their backpacks that have their bus route number clearly visible. These youngest students also must be put on the bus and taken off the bus by a family member.
FirstView — an app that parents can download on their phones that tracks their student’s bus. Parents can also set a boundary around their stop that alerts them when the bus is near the stop. “On our side of the app, tracking the buses looks like a whole bunch of green ants going and we can see where all of our buses are,” Phillips said.
Tiffany Jennings, First Student Location Manager, said there are about 2,000 Pendleton School District students registered to ride the bus.
What do Phillips and Jennings want bus-riding students to remember?
SAFE – sitting back to back, seat to seat, floor on floor & body parts and belongings inside windows
RESPECTFUL – hands and feet to yourself, voices at a whisper
RESPONSIBLE – follow adult directions, food and drinks in backpack
What about parents? Phillips said it’s helpful for parents to remember that sometimes traffic issues arise, like a train blocking several railroad crossings in town, which necessitates buses routing around, which takes more time.
“We have a great working relationship and good communication with the Pendleton School District,” Phillips said, “which makes it easier to ensure bus safety for students every day.”
