An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 16 – Off Campus Activities

 The employer does not share the information with any third party; and  The employer immediately removes the employee from the EPN program upon termination of employment. 2222

Employees who only drive for the employer occasionally and volunteers are not covered by the EPN Program. However, the DMV may allow employees and volunteers to participate in the EPN Program even where the drivers do not meet all of its requirements. Moreover, a school’s insurance broker may have access to other programs which will allow schools to obtain information about employee and volunteer drivers who do not qualify for the EPN Program.

LCW Practice Advisor

C. S TUDENT S AFETY Private schools are required to provide instruction in school bus emergency procedures and passenger safety to students transported in a school bus or school pupil activity bus. The instruction must be given at least once a year to all transported students pre-K through eighth grade. In addition, safety instruction must be given prior to departures on a school activity trip including instruction on the location of emergency exits and location and use of emergency equipment. A record must be maintained by the school for one year documenting the details of the instruction. 2223 The safety instruction plan must include a procedure to ensure no child is left unattended on the bus. 2224 If the driver is ultimately disciplined due to gross negligence in leaving a child unattended on a bus, that discipline must be reported to the DMV. 2225 Starting March 1, 2019, each school bus, SPAB, youth bus and child care motor vehicle (a vehicle designed, used, or maintained for more than eight persons, including the driver, that is used by a day care center to transport children) must be equipped with a child safety alarm system. 2226 This type of alarm system is a device the driver has to scan before exiting to confirm no students are left on the vehicle. This new law was passed after a special-needs child died after accidentally being left inside a bus for several hours. Students must wear seatbelts while traveling on school buses in California if those buses are equipped with seatbelts. 2227 Pursuant to the California Vehicle Code, school buses that are purchased or leased in California and manufactured on or after July 1, 2004, must have seatbelts for their passengers, regardless of whether the school bus has fewer or more than sixteen (16) passengers and the driver. 2228 Since many buses still in use are not equipped with seatbelts, schools are not required by law to use only buses with seatbelts. On or before July 1, 2035, all school buses in use in California must be equipped with a passenger restraint system. 2229 Private schools must ensure that reasonable care is used when transporting students. In a case involving a public school district, but which is instructive for private schools, a court found that the district must exercise reasonable care when dropping students off at a school bus stop. In this case, a student was killed crossing the street after he had been dropped off on the side of the

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 541