Driver Teams must initially travel to the your home to verify all necessary information in person before the school year begins. Part of their trip to your home is also to verify telephone numbers. Phone number verification should be done on a monthly basis for all those numbers listed for a special needs student. You as a parent may assume that if you have given the school building secretary the emergency numbers at the beginning of the school year that that same secretary will know when you have changed telephone contact numbers. Verification of phone numbers may be difficult when caregivers at the home address or at day care centers or nursery schools are not authorized to release parental contact phone numbers except to authorized personnel.
Parents forget that the driver and bus assistant are authorized personnel.
They can and should be authorized to receive working parental phone numbers. When several phone numbers are required to cover all logical parental communication options then finding valid telephone numbers is a daunting task for the Driver Team. A text message can be sent via paper mail, electronic mail, facsimile, or overnight courier. Contact at home will not always access you. When Driver Teams or the special needs transportation office calls your work number some workplaces will restrict personal calls from employees even for driver teams seeking to verify phone numbers.