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NAMPA, Idaho — The school year begins for many districts Wednesday and while some districts are moving to a complete fleet of air conditioned buses, other buses will be required to have A/C because of student IEPs.

• In the Gem State, school buses are not required to have air conditioning.
• Special Education teachers have the opportunity to provide air conditioning for students through IEPs.
• Two Treasure Valley Districts have fully air conditioned fleets beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

Big changes coming to many school districts in the Treasure Valley beginning this school year. Four day school week, cell phone bans, and for a couple school districts, air conditioning in all school buses.

In the Gem State, school buses are not required to have air conditioning. In fact, if a bus has an a/c unit that is inoperative, that bus will fail inspection.

But there is one way that some students could get air conditioning: individualized education plans.

“Accommodations on an IEP are there to help students access curriculum, instruction, socialization, so if a kiddo needs an accommodation on the bus to be able to get to school, then yes, we would write that in there,” says Nampa School District’s Director of Special Education Dr. Cyndi Cook.

An IEP begins as a team effort between specialists, special education teachers, and parents. IEPs are used for learning goals as well as behavior but the State Department of Education tells me that air conditioning can also be put into IEPs, making A/C units in the bus for some students compulsory based on need.

“You don’t do it just because,” Dr. Cook explains, “there’s a couple different reason mostly around medical things. Some students have a disorder or disability that does not allow their body to regulate temperature and that could cause seizure, grand mal seizures, it can cause other medical issues that by the time they get to school, they’re done.”

After switching to First Student, the Nampa School District will have an entire fleet of 89 buses with air conditioning. West Ada has also made the move to an entirely air conditioned fleet through their partnership with Durham School Services.

Kuna and Emmett School Districts have just over 30 buses and none of them are equipped with A/C. They tell me this is because they do not have any student’s requiring it through IEPs nor do they have the funding to equip their buses.

Mountain Home has 34 buses with 3 of those having A/C because of an IEP and Vallivue School District has 4 buses with A/C through Brown Bus Company.

The Boise School District maintains a fleet of 19 of their 122 buses to be air conditioned which is also their wheelchair-lift equipped buses.

But air conditioning might not just be put into an IEP because of a health or learning reason, behaviors could play a part for many students.

“It could, that’s where I was going,” Dr. Cook says excitedly. “It could be a behavioral thing. Typically that is tied to that medical piece because fluctuating temperatures can cause our ability to self regulate to be a little different than typical.”

What would you do? What would you do if your child gets a week or two into school and tells you that their teacher isn’t working out this year? They don’t like the kids in their class, they don’t like the teacher, and they aren’t going to like this new school year. It happens to every kid at least once in their school career, and we have all been there, when it happens, as a parent, there are a few options you can take, but which one is the right one to take for your child? Does it matter why they don’t like the teacher? Does it matter why they don’t want their classmates? If your child comes to you this week, next week, or in a few and says it isn’t working out, what would you do?

Kids Not Liking Their Classes in Idaho

With the rare exception of kids that love school, most of us at one time or another had a teacher or a certain class that we hated going to. It could have been that none of our friends were in the class, the subject, the teacher, or any other number of reasons, but most students have a class they dread at some time in their school career. What is the best way to handle it, especially as a parent? You can take the easy way out and ask them to be transferred to another class, with another teacher. This may help your child because perhaps the teacher’s methods aren’t helping them and they need something different. You could take the extreme case and pull them from school and homeschool them yourself, but that could hurt them in the long run, or be exactly what your child needs. 

How to Handle Kids in School in Idaho

For many of us, we had to suffer through these classes, as our parents didn’t want to deal with the hassle of moving us from class to class, and they said how it would help us to stick with it. In many cases, it benefitted us to stay where we were and to make it through the semester or the school year. Kids today want the easy way out, and many parents grant that wish. Perhaps the best way to handle the situation is to have them wait it out and see if things get better. If your child is still unhappy or struggling after a month, then perhaps action needs to be taken to pull them from that class. 

As a new school year begins, there will be parents in the Magic Valley and all across the Gem State that have to deal with their child not liking their teacher the first week, not having their favorite friend in their class, not liking a certain subject or for random reasons wanting to not be in a certain class. As parents, it is up to you to decide the best way to handle the situation, but if your child approaches you and hates their class, what would you do?