With school back in session, students will frequently be on the roads for day to day transportation, field trips and extra curricular activities. An important student safety component is a thorough vehicle use policy addressing procedures for driver authorization, vehicle use and maintenance, emergency response, and the use of charter or rental vehicles. Here are items to include in your policy to ensure best practices in transportation safety:

• Restrict who can drive school owned vehicles and when drivers can use privately owned vehicles for school business
• Enforce driver qualifications (e.g., age, current license, completion of training course, no driving infractions)
• Require driver of a privately owned vehicle used for school business has insurance for first coverage
• Outline who is responsible for vehicle maintenance 
• Define what vendors can be used for maintenance 
• Install safety features on vehicles such as video surveillance 
• Develop an easy to follow accident response protocol 
• Publicize and test the emergency response plan
• Put accident report kits in vehicles 
• Thoroughly vet companies your school charters/rents vehicles from & carefully review contracts