TSD Conference attendees making travel plans for November may want to think twice before booking their flight home.
A new two-hour experience, “Big Ideas and TSD Takeaways,” concludes the 2026 TSD Conference on Tuesday, Nov. 10, from 8 to 10 a.m. Rather than simply recapping the event, the interactive session is being designed to challenge attendees with the kinds of complicated, real-world situations that student transporters regularly encounter, and that are not addressed in a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The featured workshop, “Twists, Turns & Modifications: A Scenario-based Workshop for Achieving Safety, Compliance & Best Practices in Transportation,” will ask participants to work through scenarios involving students with disabilities and special needs. The answer may not be as simple as following a written procedure, and it is highly likely is no time to wait for an IEP team to reconvene and address the issue.
School buses and other school vehicles are dynamic environments. An IEP may establish transportation requirements, but not every situation that develops during a route can be anticipated on paper. Safety concerns, changing student needs, medical issues, behavior and other circumstances can require transportation professionals and collaborators to assess what is happening, determine what can safely be done in the moment and understand what should happen next.
That intersection between compliance and real-world decision-making will form the foundation of the closing workshop. Organizers are developing scenarios that will allow attendees to discuss possible responses, hear different perspectives and examine how transportation, special education, medical and therapeutic considerations can influence a decision.
The goal is to make the final two hours of the TSD Conference some of the most participatory and practical of the entire conference — while giving attendees an opportunity to connect lessons learned throughout the week and take those ideas back to their operations.
Twists, Turns & Modifications” also serves as the logical bookend for Friday, Nov. 6 opening general session “When Guidance is Incorrect or Missing.” Following a keynote by behavior expert Patrick Mulick, TSD Tenured Faculty members Alexandra Robinson, Launi Harden and Sue Shutrump will discuss the importance of not accepting direction from superiors that contradicts regulations, compliance or best practices. The session is based on an article written by fellow TSD Tenured Faculty Member Emeritus Linda Bluth, which will appear in the October edition of School Transportation News magazine. Attendees will receive strategies on how to handle these situations.
Main Conference registration is currently $499 under the Early Bird rate through Oct. 2, a $100 savings from standard registration beginning Oct. 3. Registration includes access to keynote, general and breakout educational sessions as well as conference networking events.
