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Parents must assess their child’s health before sending them on the bus/van or dropping them off at school. Please see the Government of Ontario’s updated school screening tool. For COVID-19 resources, please visit Public Health Ontario’s website.

Public Health Ontario Resource

School Screening Tool (Self-Assessment)

New Government guidelines state that if your child has COVID Symptoms, presume they are infected with the virus and self-isolate. Please do not send your child on the bus/van or to school.

Parents will be required to pick up their child at the bus stop or at the school immediately upon identification of a sick child. Unsupervised sick students at the stop will be isolated on the vehicle upon boarding, to the extent possible. The student will be required to wear a mask during the trip to school.

The Principal will determine if an identified student may return home on the bus/van, with proper precautions.

• Respiratory and hand hygiene are critical mitigation strategies that limit the transmission of viruses. Students are encouraged to wash their hands thoroughly and/or use hand-sanitizer prior to going to the stop, and then sanitizing their hands again (using their hand-sanitizer) before boarding the bus/van.
• Students from grades KG to 12 are no longer required to wear a mask. Masks, however, may be worn at the individual’s discretion.

Please keep in mind that reducing COVID-19 risk of transmission is everyone’s responsibility. New Government guidelines state that if your child has COVID Symptoms, presume they are infected with the virus and self-isolate. Please do not send your child on the bus/van or to school.

Reviewing basic school bus safety rules is also critical, particularly for first time riders. The following resources are available to teach young students school bus safety: here

If eligible students and their parents choose not to use SSSC’s transportation services, we ask that you opt-out as soon as possible here. Opting Out of Transportation is only temporary and helps SSSC re-organize routes so students whose routes are cancelled can have access to transportation. Parents/Guardians of eligible students may request transportation be re-instituted by completing the Request a change form on our Parent Portal or by calling us at 705 521 1234. Please note that it may take up to a week for transportation to be reinstated after the form is received.

It is recommended that parents and students use active transportation to get to school as much as possible. Walking and rolling the whole way, or part of the way, will reduce traffic around the school and provide a mask-free experience.

If eligible students and their parents choose not to use SSSC’s transportation services, we ask that you opt-out as soon as possible here. This will assist SSSC, the School and Public Health to perform contact tracing on students who are actually riding the bus, if a suspected case of COVID-19 is identified. Eligible students may opt back into the service at any time, although reassignment to transportation may take some time depending on the volume of changes.

School Bus Safety Starts at Home!

Did you know that school bus safety is EVERY bus rider’s responsibility?

To ensure your child understands how to take the bus safely, SSSC recommends that parents/guardians:

• Review the School Bus Safety Brochure with their child, either online or in hardcopy format, before school starts and on a regular basis.
• Help their child understand their role in keeping themselves, and the other riders, safe.
• Practice proper bus riding behaviour at home with their child.

You can help the bus driver get everyone to and from school safely, simply by following these bus safety rules!

School bus and van safety rules are designed to reduce injury to students on their ride to and from school. Students should remain seated with their backpacks on their lap and avoid "horsing-around". They should not eat or drink on the bus/van to avoid spills and garbage. Bullying on the bus/van, whether verbal or physical, will not be tolerated.

Seating assignments and cohorting are no longer necessary on buses, however, drivers may ask students to remain in their assigned seats in order to ensure safe rider behaviour.

Kindergarten students will be seated near the front, and a parent/guardian will be required to meet them at their stop, as usual.

Distancing at bus stops and on the bus is no longer required.

Where there are many students (i.e. apartment buildings, congregated stops), may be divided into 2 or more stops in order to allow space for smaller groups of students to wait. It is important that students arrive at their designated stop at least 5 minutes before the posted stop time.

Once the bus arrives, students should not crowd the front door. Rather, students should line up, where possible. Students should get to their assigned seats and sit down with their bags on their lap as quickly as possible.

Operators will do their utmost to keep the same driver on the same run, every day. If drivers become ill, however, they will be expected to isolate for 5 or 10 days. The route may be covered by a spare driver or may be cancelled for the isolation.

Because Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is designed to protect the wearer, drivers of yellow buses and vans will have the option to wear whatever PPE they feel protects them best, or none at all, at their discretion. Drivers will be provided with PPE, including high-quality non-fit tested N95 masks (optional) or medical-grade masks (minimum requirement), face shields, goggles and rapid antigen tests.

Drivers will also sel-assess daily and report any symptoms requiring further testing or isolation to their Operator. They will be provided with rapid antigen test kits should they become symptomatic.

Upon arriving at the school, students will unload in an orderly fashion. Physical distancing on the bus is no longer required. Students should use their personal hand-sanitizer as soon as they get off the bus and before entering the school, if possible.

Schools will continue to organize dismissal times and ensure students get on the right bus.

• Seating assignments will no longer be enforced by the school, although drivers may ask students to remain in their assigned seats to ensure a safer ride. Seats will be clearly numbered and the driver will indicate in which seat each student should sit.
• Loading capacity will be as normal, with a full load being 48-70 students, depending on the number of eligible students and their grade level. Students may be seated 2 or 3 per bench.
• Students from grades KG to 12 no longer need to wear a mask
• The bench behind the driver will be left vacant, to the extent possible. This bench may be used to isolate a sick child.
• Deep cleaning of vehicles twice a day with an approved disinfectant. Once after the morning runs and once again after the afternoon runs. The handrail, a high touch area, will be cleaned after every run.

• Parents and school staff may wear a mask when securing students within the van, at their discretion
• Parents may choose to use a non-scented, disinfectant wipe to clean any plastic or metal surfaces where their child will be sitting. Spray will not be permitted.
• Students from grades KG to 12 no longer need to wear a mask.
• The driver may wear a mask, at their discretion.
• Deep cleaning of vehicles twice a day with an approved disinfectant. Once after the morning runs and once again after the afternoon runs.

• The driver may wear a gown, face shield or goggles, mask, and gloves, depending on the circumstances and at their discretion. The driver will use hand sanitizer before and after loading each student or wear gloves.
• Loading capacity will be normal. Ambulatory Students may be seated 2 or 3 per bench. All wheelchair positions will be used to secure students using wheelchairs.
• Students from grades KG to 12 no longer need to wear a mask.
• The bench behind the driver will be left vacant, to the extent possible. This bench may be used to isolate a sick child.
• Deep cleaning of vehicles twice a day with an approved disinfectant. Once after the morning runs and once again after the afternoon runs. The handrail, a high touch area, as well as any other affected areas, will be cleaned after every run.

Bus attendants and monitors will wear increasingly protective gear, depending on their role within the bus/van, at their discretion. An alternative to using gloves is to use hand sanitizer before and after handling each student.

Adult Crossing Guards (ACG) are deployed at warranted locations by the City of Sudbury and Espanola and are managed by the Sudbury Safety Council. The ACG may be wearing a mask, at their discretion and some may also wear a face shield if they prefer to.

The ACG will indicate using chalk lines or by speaking to students as to where they should stop and stand while waiting to cross the street while maintaining physical distance from pedestrians and students.

Students are asked to make a special effort to give crossing guards some space while crossing the street. Drivers are reminded that it is illegal to proceed through an intersection while a crossing guard remains in the intersection, even if it appears there is space. This is a finable offence.

Recently, the government's COVID-19 monitoring and response strategy has changed regarding how they respond to the virus. As of January 2022, schools will no longer be performing contact tracing. Parents can voluntarily inform their child's school if they have tested positive on a RAT or PCR test. A formal notification of a positive COVID case will only be made at the school board's discretion if the information is available.

New Government guidelines state that if your child has Covid Symptoms, presume they are infected with the virus and self-isolate. Please do not send your child on the bus/van or to school.

SSSC determines if transportation at a particular school must be suspended on a per case basis.

It is not mandatory for staff and drivers to be vaccinated against COVID 19 however it is highly recommended.

To protect the safety of everyone on the school bus or van, drivers are required to self-assess daily and report any symptoms requiring further testing or isolation to their Operator. Unvaccinated drivers or those who have not disclosed their vaccination status, are no longer required to perform regular rapid antigen testing.

Any driver (vaccinated or unvaccinated), who gets a positive result from the rapid antigen test, must not report to work and must isolate according to Public Health guidance.

SSSC will continue to provide RAT tests for symptomatic drivers.