What does a bus monitor do?
A bus monitor is responsible for supervising students on school buses and coordinating with bus drivers, ensuring a safe transport service for everyone. They are in charge of monitoring the students' behavior, assisting the students with mobility issues, maintaining order, and enforcing the safety rules and policies. During a school or field trip, they also handle attendance sheets and execute roll calls to ensure no one is left behind. Moreover, there are also times when they must produce progress reports and coordinate with school administrators when addressing and resolving student conflicts.
Bus monitor responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real bus monitor resumes:
- Seat students safely using need seat belts, car seats or wheel chair restraints, etc.
- Seat students safely using need seat belts, and if applicable wheel chair restraints, etc.
- Enroll in CDL training classes.
- Assist children on bus with ESE problems
- Secure and ensure clients safety via wheelchair or walk ons.
- maintain records of Pre and post inspection of school bus.
- Assist bus driver with the cleanliness of the inside of the bus.
- Assist wheelchair bound children in an appropriate and safe manner by locking down their wheelchairs.
- Monitor children on bus, buckle children in 5 star seats, obtain CDL to drive bus.
- Monitor the disability kids on the bus make sure they go on their car seat and put their seat belt on
- Monitor the kids throughout the ride for any signs, as having an episode or having any type of problem.
- Train to provide child supervision skills, conflict management with parents, and basic trauma/natural disaster training including CPR certification.
- Maintain cleanliness and organization of assign station and service areas.
- Help teachers to prepare for departure including; putting on coats and assuring that each child have his/her own belongings.
- Help teachers to prepare the departure, including putting on coats, assuring that all the children have their belongings.
Bus monitor skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Bus Monitors are proficient in Customer Service, Behavior Problems, and Kids. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Patience, and Physical health.
We break down the percentage of Bus Monitors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 22%
Engaged in customer service activities to ensure that the children riding the bus were as comfortable as possible.
- Behavior Problems, 15%
Communicate behavior problems and conditions of various stops with the driver.
- Kids, 13%
Assist Bus Driver with children on the bus, making sure the kids are following all safety rules.
- CPR, 10%
Trained to provide child supervision skills, conflict management with parents, and basic trauma/natural disaster training including CPR certification.
- Safety Rules, 4%
Submitted written documentation of students who consistently disregarded bus and/or safety rules.
- Seat Belts, 4%
Assist students boarding and exiting the bus, operating wheelchair lift, securing wheelchairs, buckling seat belts
"customer service," "behavior problems," and "kids" are among the most common skills that bus monitors use at work. You can find even more bus monitor responsibilities below, including:
Customer-service skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a bus monitor to have is customer-service skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "bus drivers regularly interact with passengers and must be courteous and helpful." Bus monitors often use customer-service skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provide professional and quality customer service"
Patience. Another essential skill to perform bus monitor duties is patience. Bus monitors responsibilities require that "because of possible traffic congestion and sometimes unruly passengers, bus drivers are put in stressful situations and must remain calm and continue to operate their bus." Bus monitors also use patience in their role according to a real resume snippet: "transport passengers safely to and from all scheduled destinations exercise patience, understanding, and mature judgment. "
Physical health. bus monitors are also known for physical health, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to bus monitor responsibilities, because "federal and state regulations do not allow people to become bus drivers if they have a medical condition, such as high blood pressure or epilepsy, which may interfere with their operation of a bus." A bus monitor resume example shows how physical health is used in the workplace: "maintained order and behavior of clients while protecting from physical and/or verbal abuse by anyone in the program. "
Visual ability. A big part of what bus monitors do relies on "visual ability." You can see how essential it is to bus monitor responsibilities because "bus drivers must be able to pass vision tests." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical bus monitor tasks: "ensured the safety and proper transport of special needs children performed daily visual inspections of bus equipment and assistive devices"
The three companies that hire the most bus monitors are:
- First Transit34 bus monitors jobs
- First Student15 bus monitors jobs
- Birnie Bus Service11 bus monitors jobs
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Compare different bus monitors
Bus monitor vs. School bus driver/teacher assistant
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a bus monitor are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "behavior problems," "kids," and "safety rules." On the other hand, a job as a school bus driver/teacher assistant requires skills like "appropriate safety," "assist bus," "children ages," and "cdl." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that school bus driver/teacher assistants earn slightly differ from bus monitors. In particular, school bus driver/teacher assistants are 7.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a bus monitor. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Bus monitor vs. School boat driver
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that bus monitor responsibilities requires skills like "customer service," "kids," "seat belts," and "safety regulations." But a school boat driver might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "background checks," "transportation services," "cdl license," and "children ages."
School boat drivers earn similar levels of education than bus monitors in general. They're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Bus monitor vs. Special education bus driver
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a bus monitor is likely to be skilled in "customer service," "behavior problems," "kids," and "cpr," while a typical special education bus driver is skilled in "autism," "cdl," "mechanical problems," and "inspection reports."
Special education bus drivers typically earn higher educational levels compared to bus monitors. Specifically, they're 6.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Bus monitor vs. Special client bus driver
Even though a few skill sets overlap between bus monitors and special client bus drivers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a bus monitor might have more use for skills like "customer service," "behavior problems," "kids," and "cpr." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of special client bus drivers require skills like "submit reports," "ventilation," "medical assistance," and "two way radios. "
In general, special client bus drivers hold similar degree levels compared to bus monitors. Special client bus drivers are 1.5% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of bus monitor
Updated January 8, 2025
