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Sept. 15, 2020

NAPT MEMBER NEWS

US Department of Labor Issues New Rules Regarding Emergency Paid Sick leave

NAPT

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new regulation explaining who qualifies for emergency paid sick leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The "temporary" rule, which takes effect Sept. 16, addresses areas of a prior rule the DOL issued in April that U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken invalidated last month after finding that the agency exceeded its authority.

Judge Oetken decided that the DOL went too far in its initial rule when it blocked workers from taking FFCRA leave if their employers don't have work for them to perform. Friday's rule reaffirms the DOL's stance that leave under the FFCRA can be taken "only if the employee has work from which to take leave", saying it "carefully considered the district court's opinion" and offered a "fuller explanation for its original reasoning regarding the work-availability requirement" that it adopted in April. The agency also made some clarifications to the regulatory language it uses and sought to "clarify" several issues regarding how workers notify employers that they will use FFCRA leave, according to Friday's rule.

The FFCRA took effect April 1, several weeks after it was signed by President Trump, and will remain in place until the end of the year. It includes two components: the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act.

The law, which applies to most employers with under 500 employees, provides workers with two weeks — up to 80 hours — of leave at full pay if they're sick or have to quarantine, and the same allotment at partial pay if workers have to care for sick family members or homebound children. The law also provides two weeks of unpaid time off followed by 10 weeks at partial pay to workers who can't work because their child's school or day care provider has closed.

Additional information is available at here.

Join FMCSA for a TPR Technical Requirements Webinar

FMCSA

Beginning February 7, 2022, all providers of entry-level driver training will be required to submit driver training certification information electronically to the Training Provider Registry (TPR).

Submitting Data via the TPR Web Service
FMCSA will support an option to allow training providers that have their own IT systems to set up a direct interface between their system and the Registry using a TPR Web Service. FMCSA is hosting a webinar to help training providers learn more about the technical requirements for setting up this web interface.

TPR Technical Requirements Webinar for Training Providers
Monday, September 21, 2020
1:00-2:00 p.m. ET

Registration is required to attend the webinar and capacity is limited. If you have any issues registering at the link below, contact the TPR Team.

ASBC Campaign Promotes Health and Safety Benefits of Yellow School Buses

NAPT

The six stalwart industry organizations that comprise the coalition known as the American School Bus Council (ASBC) have recently launched a multi-media marketing and public relations campaign to promote the health and safety benefits of the iconic yellow school bus.

The campaign highlights new protocols that have been widely implemented during the pandemic, like increased cleaning and disinfection and the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), especially face masks, and also reinforces traditional ASBC themes, like equal access to education, less traffic, cleaner air and, of course, incredible safety.

The campaign's centerpiece is a new section of the ASBC website dedicated to Covid-19, which provides a variety of resources for both parents and school transportation professionals. The website's Covid-19 landing page features a new video, entitled "A Symbol of Safety" that explains how school transportation professionals are working harder than ever to make student safety their priority. It also features a link to the report of the School Transportation Aligned for Return To School Task Force.

Another highlight of the campaign is a 1-minute video called "Titans of Transportation" that extols ASBC's core messaging in an impactful, new way. According to the promotional messaging, "The yellow school bus is awesome. It keeps kids safe, lessens environmental impact and provides access to education for all. It's time to recognize it for what it truly is: A steadfast, hardworking titan of transportation. Give the yellow school bus another look at https://bit.ly/3iqzJHC."

The campaign also leans heavily on social media, featuring paid promotional advertising and weekly posts on Facebook and LinkedIn. Using a robust social media management system, the ASBC team will monitor the brand's social media presence and pro-actively seek opportunities for engagement targeting parents, school districts and local government officials.

"Our objective is to keep the yellow school bus top of mind among parents when children are returning to school", said NAPT President Steve Simmons. "The plan is to be flexible and adjust strategy as the situation develops and changes."

Please feel free to use the links embedded in this article for additional information.

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Keep Your NAPT® Member Profile Up-to-Date

NAPT

Now is a great time to log in to the NAPT® website and update your member profile!

Once you're logged in:

View and update your personal information — it's quick and simple. As soon as you log in, you'll see all of your information and have the ability to make edits as necessary.
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Select your Directory Category by clicking on "My Directory Options" and selecting the appropriate organization type.

Connect with NAPT

NAPT

Let NAPT help you stay in touch with colleagues and up-to-date on industry news and interesting stories from around the nation.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

INDUSTRY NEWS

Bus stops: 9 school busing realities to recognize

District Administration Magazine

What individually does the work of 36 cars and collectively transports nearly 26 million kids a day? It's the school bus, and like everything else related to education in the past six months, it has experienced major bumps in the road. "You take the nation's largest system of mass transit and shut it down overnight — that's going to have a ripple effect," says Mike Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. Martin was a co-administrator on a project that pulled the school bus transportation industry together in an effort to help school district leaders plan for fall reopenings.

Remote learning spells uncertainty for school bus drivers

Crosscut

The layoff notices came to bus drivers a little over a week before school started in the Central Kitsap School District. It wasn’t a surprise to Allison Ruiz. She had been worried about what the pandemic would mean for her job since last spring. Even so, Ruiz had hoped the district would figure something out. She has three kids in school and takes care of her father and her husband, both of whom are disabled. The job was necessary. And suddenly, it was gone.

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Districts offer cash to families who skip the school bus

Education Week

Here's an unusual proposition tucked in districts' back-to-school newsletters this year: Parents, would you be willing to find alternative transportation for your kids if you get some cash up front? One of the most complicated and expensive aspects of reopening buildings during a global pandemic has been figuring out how to get kids to and from school.

Bus transportation for special needs students in a pandemic

District Administration Magazine

The safe return to school for students with special needs may require modifications in related service transportation that were not required prior to COVID-19, as notes the Student Transportation Aligned for Return to School (STARTS) Task Force report, developed by national school transportation leaders and published in July. The report includes 18 guidelines specific to transportation for students with disabilities.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

Appeal denied for Indiana woman who killed 3 children in bus stop crash

WMAQ

An Indiana woman who plowed her pickup truck into four children, killing three of them as they crossed a two-lane highway to board their school bus was denied an appeal Monday, NBC affiliate WNDU reported. In December, Alyssa Shepherd, 25, of Rochester, Indiana, was sentenced to four years in prison as well as one year of house arrest and one year of probation for each of the three counts of reckless homicide she was convicted of and her driver’s license was also suspended for 10 years.

5 takeaways for returning to school

Harvard University

School districts in the United States are in a period of profound uncertainty, which will likely persist throughout the 2020–2021 school year. Many agree that remote teaching in spring 2020 was piecemeal and sub-optimal. Now, despite a stated universal commitment to full-time, in-person, high-caliber education, many states have rising rates of COVID-19, and teachers and parents share deep health concerns. Already we have witnessed a rapid and seismic transition from the beginning of this summer — in June, many schools planned to open full-time for in-person learning — to near-universal adoption of hybrid or remote teaching models. In fact, as of August 26th, 24 of the 25 largest school districts in the U.S. will start their school year providing remote-only education.

Why mass notification systems can help during the pandemic

eSchool News

The ongoing pandemic has forced schools and districts to change the way they operate. Depending on local guidelines, the new school year will look very different for many teachers and students. Some schools are reopening with precautions in place, others are sticking to virtual learning and some are mixing in-person and virtual strategies. Whatever a school or district decides to do, there is a need for strong communication to do it successfully — and mass notification systems play an important role.

ED: Interim final rule to calculate CARES Act is no longer in effect

District Administration Magazine

The U.S. Education Department posted a statement on its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund webpage saying that the interim final rule requiring states to allocate the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136, is no longer in effect. ED's statement was made public a few days after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. DeVos, 120 LRP 26741 (D.D.C. 09/04/20), in which Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia ruled ED exceeded its authority when it released the IFR.

5 principles to guide adaptive leadership

Harvard Business Review

The COVID-19 pandemic is constantly evolving, with leaders facing unpredictability, imperfect information, multiple unknowns and the need to identify responses quickly — all while recognizing the multi-dimensional (health-related, economic, social, political, cultural) nature of the crisis.

Do you trust your instincts?

Forbes

Instincts, intuition, an inkling, a spidey sense — whatever you call it, it's that feeling you have in your gut pushing you toward or away from something. Do you recognize and trust yours? Whether you're cognizant of it or not, as you’ve been progressing through your career you've been developing not only your domain expertise but your instincts as well — how you assess people, feasibility and approaches.

How leaders can improve employee engagement — Even during challenging times

Forbes

Leaders are responsible for keeping teams inspired, informed and working toward collective business goals. This can be challenging in "normal" times, let alone now while most industries are facing unprecedented challenges. But despite everything happening in the world right now, the reality is that businesses need to keep moving forward to succeed. Success starts with employee engagement.

How to support your returning workforce

Entrepreneur

The landscape of the modern workplace was, and continues to be, drastically restructured by the COVID-19 virus. Millions of workers were laid off or furloughed across the country, and many low-wage workers (including teachers) now earn more money from unemployment than they did on the job. For employers, recalling the workforce in the most ethical way — the way that most benefits companies and employees alike, while minimizing COVID-19 exposure — is a complicated conversation.

Report: Schools need 176 million tests each month to safely reopen

U.S. News & World Report

The U.S. needs as many as 176 million coronavirus tests each month in order to reopen and operate schools safely, according to a new estimate by the Rockefeller Institute — a far cry from the current testing landscape, which stands at about 21 million tests each month for the entire country.

NAPT Dispatch

Connect with NAPT

Dennis Hall, Director of Publishing, 469-420-2656 | Download media kit
Hailey Golden, Senior Education Editor, 469-420-2630 | Contribute news

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