I always drove my kids up until November of last year. They went to a private school and a bus was not an option. Now they go to a public school and ride the bus. Their school is less than 5 miles away. I like them riding the bus. Their school at the elementary level has many incentives to behave on the bus. The bus driver picks 5 kids each month, and they get to leave class for about 20 minutes on one Friday a month to play board games with the bus drivers. My son got to do that this month and he loved it.

They also got a pencil given out to each child that stayed sitting forward during their entire bus ride, it was a goal that was set one week for the kids.

Each bus driver also had a time where at school all the kids on their bus and also the school administration sat down and talked about bus rules and gave the kids a chance to talk and ask questions. They also have assigned seats at all age levels on their buses.

I do walk my daughter out every morning and wait with her for the bus, she is 12. She catches it at the corner, 2 houses away. My sons bus picks him up in front of our house. He watches out the window, and when she passes our house, to go down the street and turnaround he walks out and then she picks him up.

So far I have been really happy with them taking the bus and how the schools are really proactive in trying to prevent problems.