NAPT President Linda Bluth got the ball rolling with the first-ever appearance of a special NAPT's special needs transportation course held in conjunction with the STN EXPO.

Even before the first official STN EXPO pre-conference began, some two dozen attendees received a full serving of special needs training that included a handful of activities, some important case studies and a wealth of information to bring back to their individual school districts.

"With special needs, decisions are reviewed on a case by case basis," said Bluth.

After an introduction to the material, Bluth discussed some related cases from her homer state of Maryland, as well as a few from around the country. One example centered on what happened after a special needs student's parents divorced. A request was made to continue transporting the child from both homes even though the father now lived 19 miles away from school. After the father initially won his case against the school district, the district appealed to a higher court, where the decision was reversed.

"When the parents decided to get divorced, it was not a special needs decision, it was a parental one," added Bluth.

In a similar case, a couple requested that their child remain on the same route post-divorce, since the two houses were a few blacks away from each other. The transportation director agreed. But when he retired, the incoming director overturned the decision. After taking the case to court, the judge ruled that the request did not place an undue burden on the school district and that a rule cannot be altered simply because of a change in staff.

Bluth kept the attendees involved in the class with some activities that not both highlighted some common issues and problems, but also tested their knowledge of special needs basics, such as some handy acronyms, including IDEA, IEP and FERPA. Those who registered for the course received four hours of credit toward the total 32-hour NAPT Special Needs Endorsement.