Idaho school districts move to air-conditioned bus fleets, an opportunity for others through IEPs

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.”