District to pilot digital bus-misconduct reporting at two schools

Speaker 8 gave an overview of bus-misconduct trends and a proposed digital reporting pilot. "We're exploring the alarming rise of school bus misconduct incidents and the changing landscape over the past decade," Speaker 8 said, listing common violations from rule breaches and bullying to physical altercations and substance use.

Staff described current procedures: drivers complete a paper bus-misconduct form and hand it to school administration; drivers often do not receive follow-up information. "The school bus driver completes a bus misconduct form, which is done on a piece of paper. The school bus driver then turns in that completed misconduct form to administration at [a] particular school," Speaker 8 said, noting the lack of timely feedback to drivers.

To address that, staff proposed piloting a technology solution from a company called Best Conduct at two elementary schools (a Hilton Head site and Port Royal). The system would let drivers or supervisors file digital referrals, enable side-by-side review of a student's disciplinary history, provide immediate feedback to drivers and transportation supervisors, and could generate parent notification letters. Staff said the pilot would be small to work out communication workflows and that, if successful, the district could expand the program to middle and high schools with a potential districtwide rollout in January.

Board members sought details on pilot scope, principal buy-in and whether schools across the district currently use the product; staff said the pilot has not yet started and that the district will brief administrators and leadership before broader deployment.

Next steps: staff will pilot Best Conduct at the two named schools, work through workflow and notification details, and report back to the operations committee on pilot results and any proposed districtwide expansion.