Every year dozens of potential school bus drivers train for one of the most important jobs in the school system.
"The parents put a lot of trust in us. We're transporting their precious cargo," said Darlene Davis, regional training manager for First Student in Kansas City.
New drivers with First Student spend about 50 hours training.
"The state standard is 8-12 hours," she said. "After you go through the training, people gain that confidence. They're like, 'Oh I can do this, I can parallel park a bus.’"
This year, they've made some changes to their training program.
"Now we've incorporated the comprehension of the drivers to make sure they are competent," said Davis. "So, it's not just us teaching them, they teach us back."
Then they put new drivers to the test with "go – no-go" training by using cones to replicate possible problems along the way.
"We put in a no-go situation to find out, is it safe to continue on or is this when they need to stop their school bus? We're trying to reduce our collisions with First Student."
After drivers pass closed course training they'll do even more training on the roadway.
