School Transportation Research Articles

Money, a Drain of Educational Opportunity: A Microregional Study of School Dropouts in Mpigi, Uganda

This paper sheds light on the causes of school dropouts, a major challenge facing UPE attainment in public primary schools of Uganda. We offer microregional analysis of school dropout patterns in the Mpigi district, and show a number of distinct patterns of school dropouts in Mpigi that can be differentiated from studies based on national data. While the Universal Primary Education program covered tuition fees, additional costs for education, such as meals, school transport, and uniforms, function as hurdles for longer school years. This is an obstacle regardless of parental awareness about education’s importance and how wealthy the parents think they are. Such findings directly conflict with existing knowledge that higher household income results in longer school years. The previous understanding of girl dropouts in Sub-Saharan Africa and its patriarchal context offer little explanations on the dropout pattern of Mpigi, as it is more related to the economic cost of education and the high demand for male agricultural labor. For a multicultural society such as Uganda, we highlight the importance of microlevel regional study in educational research.

Neighborhood Context and Parent Perspectives on Practical Considerations Related to Preschool Location

ABSTRACT Research Findings: We examined the association between neighborhood median income, child race/ethnicity, and parental perspectives and practical considerations regarding preschool program location. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of parents in Boston, Massachusetts planning to enroll in preschool (N = 1171). Questions measured parental preferences regarding program location, number of care transitions, safety, and transportation. We used adjusted logistic regression models to calculate the association between these factors and race/ethnicity and zip code median household income. Compared to the second quartile, parents living in zip codes within the two highest quartiles of median neighborhood income were more likely to prefer preschool near home. Parents living in zip codes within the highest quartile were less likely to be willing to use school transportation. Compared to parents identifying their child’s race as white, parents of Asian, Black, and Hispanic children were more likely to prefer preschool near work and parents of Black children were less likely to prefer preschool near home. Practice or Policy: Neighborhood median income had a graded association with preference for preschool near home. Transportation and location preferences varied by neighborhood context and socio-demographic factors. These findings can inform efforts to address disparities in preschool enrollment, preschool program design, and family engagement.

Review of the “Sisu Seriya” School Bus Service

School Transport is considered an essential service that provides equitable access to school children who have difficulties in accessing their respective schools. Different school transport systems in countries differ from each other based on their resources and topography. This paper presents a case study conducted on the Sri Lankan School Bus service “Sisu Seriya" initiated in 2005 to provide a sustainable, reliable and safe mechanism for providing State assistance for school transport. It provides bus service at a concessionary rate through a state subsidy to schoolchildren across the country, contracting bus operators in both public and private sectors, engaged for regularly scheduled services through a specific contractual arrangement in which a set of regulatory and safety conditions are stipulated. Sisu Seriya engages over 1,565 buses serving more than 100,000 school children daily. This paper has benchmarked the Sisu Seriya service through a systematic review of global best practices. Initiation of the system, design features, implementation mechanism and monitoring procedures of the Sisu Seriya service and areas for potential improvement are discussed based on its 15 years of operation, while elucidating the distinctive characteristics of the system. It further highlights how the service design has addressed the challenge of resource limitations, inherent to developing countries, through effective utilization of the existing fleet.

Education as an Opportunity for Integration: Assessing Colombia, Peru, and Chile's Educational Responses to the Venezuelan Migration Crisis

With over 5 million Venezuelans fleeing their home country, Latin America is facing the largest migration crisis in its history. Colombia, Peru, and Chile host the largest numbers of Venezuelan migrants in the region. Each country has responded differently to the crisis in terms of the provision of education. Venezuelan migrants attempting to enter the primary, secondary, and higher education systems encounter a variety of barriers, from struggles with documentation, to limited availability of spaces in schools, to cultural barriers and xenophobia. This paper examines the distinct educational policy responses to Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. It begins by contextualizing the current crisis through a sociopolitical and economic analysis of the origins of the Venezuelan migration phenomenon. Venezuelans are not officially and legally recognized as refugees by the UNHCR. Refugee status is considered on a case-by-case basis at the country level. The regional coordinating bodies tasked with promoting safe, orderly, and legal migration of Venezuelans to host countries have given uneven attention to education. The paper examines each country's response to Venezuelan migrants from a human rights perspective. It provides sociopolitical context and discusses the specific educational offerings from the primary to tertiary levels in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. It considers alternative or flexible education models, second shift schools, access to school transportation and feeding programs, and teacher training opportunities that cater to the growing migrant population. It explores barriers to entry into the educational system, including documentation challenges due to legal and enrollment requirements, constraints on the host countries’ education systems, and discrimination due to lack of intercultural training and xenophobia. It also discusses challenges related to the quality of the educational opportunities for Venezuelan migrant children, and the specific needs of these children. The paper considers several ideas to protect Venezuelan migrants’ rights to an education and to strengthen their integration. Finally, it offers recommendations on sustainable education solutions for Venezuelan migrants at all levels in the three countries. These recommendations include improving information sharing, addressing structural bottlenecks to school enrollment, and expanding pathways (existing and complementary) to higher education.

Personal, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity and sport participation in an adolescent Turkish population

BackgroundBenefits of physical activity has been shown for adolescents; however, there is a decline trend in number of adolescents meeting current WHO recommendations. This trend underlines the importance of identifying factors associated with adolescents’ physical activity level (PAL) with considerations of regional and cultural differences to plan and implement effective policies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine personal, ecological, and social factors associated with PAL and sport participation in Turkish adolescents aged 11–14 years. A cross-sectional study was conducted by including 996 adolescents aged between 11 and 14 years from 39 secondary schools in İstanbul, Turkey. Logistic regression analyses performed to identify the significant personal (age, gender, sleep time, screen time, BMIz score, having siblings), ecological (presence of playground, type of school transportation), and social (family income, engaging a physical activity with family, and preferred activity at school breaks) predictors of PAL and sport participation.ResultsAdolescents who were active during break time at school (p < 0.001), engaging a physical activity with family (p < 0.001), and did not have a sibling (p = 0.029) were more likely to be physically active. Adolescents behaved active during break time at school (p < 0.001), had a playground at home (p < 0.001), spending time with family for physical activity (p < 0.001), and did not have a sibling (p = 0.021) were more likely to participate in a sport activity.ConclusionsPredictors of PAL in this study indicates the need to promote active break time in school, increased physical activity time with family, and to design environmental policies to increase number of playgrounds.

A Reusable Multiplayer Game for Promoting Active School Transport: Development Study.

BackgroundMost children and adolescents in Sweden do not meet the recommended daily physical activity levels of the World Health Organization. Active school transport (AST) and gamification are potential methods for increasing children’s daily physical activity. We previously developed a game named Tic-Tac-Training for promoting active transport at workplaces; however, the game has not been applied to AST.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study are to investigate how Tic-Tac-Training functions to promote AST among schoolchildren in northern Sweden, improve the game to be more suitable for schoolchildren, and construct a road map for future development based on children’s ideas.MethodsFirst, we developed Tic-Tac-Training using the Scrum agile software development method. Second, we conducted a questionnaire-based formative evaluation of the game with schoolchildren (n=16; 9/16, 56% male; 6/16, 38% female; and 1/16, 6% other aged 11-12 years) in Luleå, Sweden. Third, we conducted focus group interviews with 33 children (13/33, 39% male and 20/33, 61% female aged 12-13 years) to gather ideas for gamifying AST. We mapped the interview results to the Octalysis gamification framework and established a road map for future development.ResultsThe formative evaluation revealed several issues, including a lack of interesting game features, lack of support for continuous engagement, disliked competitive features, and lack of incentives for discourse and participation. New features such as rewards, collectibles, and levels were implemented based on the results. The focus group interviews revealed additional ideas for gamifying AST, such as using avatars, in-game currency and trading, and context-sensitive tasks.ConclusionsThe results have several potential impacts on how reusable, gamified AST interventions can be developed and what kind of gamification elements schoolchildren in northern Sweden wish to see. These results can interest game researchers and teachers who wish to apply gamification in school contexts. Finally, we aim to continue developing the game based on the road map.

Active transport to school as a prevention policy in the COVID19 pandemic

Key Points •The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has restricted the physical activity of people of all ages worldwide, especially in young people. •Create healthy measures to control COVID-19 spreading, such as promoting active transport as cycling and walking, may represent a public health opportunity. •The promotion of active transport to/from school has not been sufficiently promoted during COVID-19 times. •Active school transport is a clear promising strategy for young people to contribute to minimizing COVID- 19 consequences because it can easily respect physical distancing, occurs outdoors, promotes healthy behaviors, increases environmental engagement, and decreases pollution through reduced automobile use.

Child pedestrian and cyclist injuries, and the built and social environment across Canadian cities: the Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment Study (CHASE)

IntroductionTraffic injury is a leading and preventable cause of child death and disability, with child pedestrians and cyclists particularly vulnerable. Examining built environment correlates of child pedestrian and cyclist motor...

Exploring home-to-school trip mode choices in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Schools are major trip generators in urban areas and school trips may largely contribute to the congestion, particularly during morning peak hours. This study investigates the home-to-school trip mode choices in Kandy city, which is a major city in Sri Lanka. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed among junior, lower senior, and upper senior students of ten major schools located in Kandy city in 2015. School trip mode choices, that comprise several common travel modes in Sri Lanka, i.e., walking, public bus, school bus, school van, private vehicles (car or van), motorcycle, and three-wheeler, were modeled using multinomial logit and mixed logit frameworks. The results indicated that gender, age, household income, school type and distance play a significant role in determining the school transport mode. That is, male students were more likely to choose public buses, walking, and private vehicles relative to other transport (three-wheeler and motorcycle combined) as compared to female students. Further, older students were more likely to walk, take a school bus and public bus relative to other transport when compared to the younger students. Distance to school was found to significantly affect all the school transport modes. National or Provincial school students were more likely to use a school bus and less likely to use a private vehicle. Transport planners and policymakers could use the outcomes of this study, especially to implement congestion mitigation measures in city centers during morning peaks. Besides, some aspects of this study could be used to regulate and legalize some private transport modes, e.g., privately operated school vans, to provide a safer, reliable, and economical service to school-going children.

School transportation program as means to improve public education in a minor rural town in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract School transportation is crucial for access and permanence of students at school, in rural areas. The Brazilian government has funded school transport programs to support municipalities. This research aims to analyze if these programs are perceived as effective in small rural municipalities. Seeking this objective, a survey was carried out among students and teachers. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to test the results. In the quantitative analysis, it is observed that the majority of students are very pleased, being regularity/punctuality the best-evaluated criterion. Teachers believe punctuality has improved, school evasion has decreased, and school performance has increased. In a combined analysis, the evaluations carried out by teachers regarding school evasion and performance presents a significant relationship with regularity/punctuality assessed by students. In the qualitative analysis, a grouping of ideas highlighted comfort, safety, civility and punctuality as positive, while most-cited negative points were overcrowding, lack of organization and discomfort.

A study of students\u2019 use of restraint systems in school transportation services in primary and secondary schools in northern Iran: an observational study

BackgroundTraffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death and severe injury among child occupants of vehicles in most countries. This has led to the consideration of how to use restraint systems for students in school buses. The purpose of the present study was to determine the percentage of students’ use of restraint systems in school transportation services in 2020.MethodsIn the present cross-sectional observational study, seatbelt use was assessed in 400 students in school transport vehicles using a checklist. The observation team sat at their vehicle, at the nearest location on one of the three sides of the school’s entrance: they had by manually registering the variable in the checklist. They focused on exactly the first vehicle parked next to the school entrance. There were two other observers to validate the observations. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 21).ResultsThe rate of using restraint systems was 11.3%, use of restraint systems in the Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) was significantly higher (P < 0.03), in areas with medium income (P < 0.009) and low income (p < 0.012) as well as when the students were sitting in the rear seats, using the seatbelt were significantly lower (P < 0.001). Seatbelt use in students was less in services driven by drivers over the age of 40 (P < 0.01) and more in vehicles driven by female drivers (P < 0.003) and newer vehicles (p < 0.001).ConclusionSchool authorities must enforce traffic safety rules for school transportation services. These rules should be taught to drivers, families, and students. A restraint system must be mandatory for all students. School officials must equip their buses with seatbelts and employ school bus assistants to encourage wearing seatbelts and prevent students from standing.

Factors Related to Adolescent Smoking: A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Study in Thailand

Objective: This study aimed to explore the individual, familial, and social factors associated with different smoking status in Thai adolescents from the 2017 Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Behavior Survey (CSAD)&#x0D; Methods: The nationally representative sample of 6046 adolescents aged 15-19 years who took part in the 2017 CSAD in Thailand. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to explore the associations between the individual, familial, and social factors and different smoking status. &#x0D; Results: The daily smoking and occasional smoking was 6.4% and 3.3%, respectively. Gender, alcohol use, substance use, attitudes toward smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke at home, anti-smoking social media campaign, and graphic warning labels were related to both daily and occasional smoking. Daily smoking was associated with exposure to secondhand smoke at school, restaurant, and public transport, and exposure to tobacco advertising.&#x0D; Conclusion: These findings suggest that smoking prevention intervention should particularly focus on these factors and also need to develop the anti-smoking policies for smoking prevention among adolescents.

Associations Between School Environments, Policies and Practices and Children's Physical Activity and Active Transportation

There is evidence of school-level variability in children's active behaviors. This study investigated the associations between school environments, policies and practices, and children's physical activity (PA) and active school transportation (AST), in a school ecology context. We recruited children (N=1699, age=10.2 ± 1.0 years, 55.0% girls) in 37 schools from 3 diverse regions of Canada. We then collected data using questionnaires (child, parent) and pedometers. In each school, an official completed a School Health Environment Survey. Multilevel regression models were used to examine associations with children's daily steps, and frequency and volume (frequency*distance) of AST. Between-school variation ranged from 4.7% to 22.2% demonstrating that school environments are associated with children's active behaviors. None of the school environment variables were significantly associated with children's PA or frequency of AST. Nevertheless, their inclusion improved the PA model. Children's volume of AST increased in schools that reported more initiatives to promote AST. Our findings suggest that multiple components are needed to effectively promote active behaviors in children. Schools should determine the areas in which they can improve and assess the feasibility of implementing measures to make their school environments, policies, and practices more conducive to PA and AST.

Development and Initial Validation of the PILCAST Questionnaire: Understanding Parents' Intentions to Let Their Child Cycle or Walk to School.

Children generally do not meet the recommendation of 60 min of daily physical activity (PA); therefore, active school transportation (AST) is an opportunity to increase PA. To promote AST, the involvement of parents seems essential. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the aim was to develop and validate the PILCAST questionnaire to understand parents’ intentions to let their child cycle or walk to school. Cross-sectional sampling was performed, where 1024 responses were collected from parents. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated acceptable fit indices for the factorial structure according to the TPB, comprising 32 items grouped in 11 latent constructs. All constructs showed satisfying reliability. The regression analysis showed that the TPB explained 55.3% of parents’ intentions to let the child cycle to school and 20.6% regarding walking, increasing by a further 18.3% and 16.6%, respectively, when past behavior was added. The most influential factors regarding cycling were facilitating perceived behavioral control, positive attitudes, subjective and descriptive norms, and for walking, subjective and descriptive norms. The PILCAST questionnaire contributes to a better understanding of the psychological antecedents involving parents’ decisions to let their child cycle or walk to school, and may therefore provide guidance when designing, implementing and evaluating interventions aiming to promote AST.

School-Bus Taking for Students with Disabilities: Who’s On-Board?

Taking the school bus has long been an integral part of the school experience in the U.S. However, not much is known about how school transportation relates to getting to school each day, particularly for students with disabilities. This study used ECLS-K: 2011 to explore two issues. First, we examined what characteristics are associated with taking the school bus, comparing students with and without disabilities. Second, we evaluated the link between taking the school bus and absenteeism for these groups. In the first set of findings, school bus taking is differentiated by student and family characteristics, as well as by urbanicity. We find no major differences in characteristics associated with taking the bus between students with disabilities and students without. As for the second set of findings, students with more common disability diagnoses had fewer absences compared to both students without disabilities as well as those with lower incidence diagnoses, suggesting that taking the bus is related to better attendance behaviors for some students with disabilities. Implications are discussed.

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

Factors that influence the evaluation of the “Caminho da Escola” Program: An analysis based on the perception of managers, school principals and members of the social monitoring and control council

School Transport plays a fundamental role in enabling students to access and stay in schools, especially those who live in rural areas in Brazil. One of the important public policies to support school transport in rural areas is the Caminho da Escola program. Since 2007 this program helps the Brazil counties in the acquisition of school transport vehicles. After eleven years of program implementation, a survey was applied to the all Brasil municipalities through the project “Actions for the development of rural school transport in Brazil”. In this survey, municipal managers, public school principals and members of the of Monitoring and Social Control Councils (CACS/Fundeb) take part of the questionnaires. An evaluation of the Caminho da Escola program was part of the survey. This study explores the impact of several factors on the evaluation of the Caminho da Escola program based on the perception of the municipal managers, public school principals and members of the of Monitoring and Social Control Councils (CACS/Fundeb). We use exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation models (SEM) to explore the relationship among various constructs using data collected. Three SEM models were constructed, one model for each group, based in seven hypotheses of relationships between latent constructs that we propose. By comparing the results of the SEM models, we find that the proposed hypotheses are not rejected. Also, the construct for evaluating the program effectiveness is common in the three models. And have a positive direct effect on the overall evaluation of the program. The managerial implications of the findings for the evaluation of the Caminho da Escola based on the Program perception of the municipal managers, public school principals and members of the of Monitoring and Social Control Councils (CACS/Fundeb) are addressed.

A resource allocation model of national school transportation program for municipalities

The National Programme for Supporting School Transport (PNATE) is an important public policy in Brazil. There are significant challenges faced regarding the implementation of PNATE. Among them, the cultural, economic and social inequalities that exists in over 5,500 Brazilian municipalities. These differences can be mitigated when they are rethought by the principle of equity, dealing with differentiation in order to promote social justice. It proposed a new model of resources allocation for the municipalities in this paper. Existing databases from school census and municipality characteristics were used to analyze the variables that represent equality, equity and meritocracy.Subsequently, a standardized index was built through factorial analysis. The final index performed a ranking of the municipalities for the resources distributions. The results allow that historically poorer regions, such as the north and northeast regions of the country, with the new model receive more resources when compared with the current model.

Monocentric versus polycentric urban structure: Case study in Hong Kong

Activity resource allocation or dispersion (e.g., employment, education), transport network improvement, and property development, affect the urban community in different ways. To illuminate their intricate relations, we study the perspectives of three groups of stakeholders: i) households with heterogeneous members seeking a common residence to optimize their proximity to activity resources; ii) transport planners aiming to relieve traffic congestion; and iii) property developers aiming to maximize their housing profit through the bid-rent process. To assess the impacts of different resource allocation patterns (centralized versus dispersed), a household bid-rent and residential location choice model with heterogeneous compositions is developed, including household members’ activity destination choices and travel choices under stochastic user equilibrium. We apply this model to a new redevelopment region in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The results show that centralized resource allocation increases the producer surplus but reduces the household disposable income. Compared with dispersion in school resource allocation or transport improvement, job reallocation is the most efficient in alleviating traffic congestion as employments are dispersed into multiple centers, and inter-zonal commute trips are converted into intra-zonal trips. We also investigate the outcomes as the urban structure varies from monocentric, dual-core into multiple self-contained communities (i.e. polycentric). The results show that any accessibility gain due to a change in the urban form will be capitalized by developers into higher housing prices in the new central business district (CBD) regions, hence shrinking the consumer surplus and disposable income. Therefore, it is unlikely to find an urban form that will achieve win–win–win situations for all three stakeholder groups in the case study example.

Active School Transportation and the Built Environment across Canadian Cities: Findings from the Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment (CHASE) Study

Active School Transportation and the Built Environment across Canadian Cities: Findings from the Child Active Transportation Safety and the Environment (CHASE) Study