PARRY SOUND, ON-In preparation for a safe return to school, the Student Transportation Service for Nipissing-Parry Sound has released its plan for the year.
When buses start running, a route for a conventional return to school will have been established and pending additional data collection from the board’s survey, an adapted route model will be employed.
Before anyone boards, parents and guardians are asked to ensure students have sanitized their hands and reinforce the need for acceptable hygiene practices like coughing and sneezing into their sleeve.
If your child must use facial tissue, it should only be disposed of it in a proper container when they get to school or when they return home.
The interior of the bus varies on the size of the vehicle and maintaining the need to keep two meters apart in all directions would seriously diminish the number of passengers allowed on.
To help combat this problem, the use of masks will be critical to help mitigate the spread of the virus between passengers and the driver.
For more details about mandatory masks, visit the NNDSB website here.
For special needs students, they will continue to be provided transportation without interruption and additional PPE may be required for drivers, monitors – and if integrated with others, students as well.
Each case will be evaluated and considered for the safety of everyone involved.
When students are picked up in the morning, it will be their’s and their family’s responsibility to reinforce physical distancing.
This also includes when students are dropped off at the end of the day.
Individual schools will establish their own practices, but they will be required to have loading strategies to minimize the contact between students of other grades.
Busses will be disinfecting the areas that are touched the most, such as handrails, window sills, seats and beat backs at least twice a day.
For more details about what you can expect with your child’s transportation, visit the NPSSTS website here.