The scenario
It is 6:10am and the routing system is unreachable. Buses roll in 35 minutes. Drivers don't have today's manifest. Some students are flagged for medical, custodial, or special-needs handling that can't be improvised.
First 60 minutes
- Activate the printed-route fallback packet (if you have one — if not, you'll build one in the next 48 hours).
- Page transportation supervisors to the depot to run paper manifests.
- Push a family alert: 'expect delays, do not leave students unattended at stops.'
- Identify students with medical or custodial flags — those routes need dispatcher confirmation per stop.
- Notify building admins so attendance logic accounts for late arrivals.
Decisions to make
Safety overlay
- — Custodial-restriction students: dispatcher confirms each handoff by radio.
- — Medically-fragile students: do not roll the route until paper manifest is verified.
Who to call
- Vendor incident response
- State pupil-transportation office if state-reporting data is affected
FAQ