With schools starting soon and many new au pairs who have recently arrived, we wanted to remind everyone about what to do in different situations with school buses. If you have questions, please ask us or your host parents.

The rules regarding stopping for school buses are:

• It is against the law to pass a stopped school bus while its lights are flashing and its’ stop arm is extended.
• On undivided roadways, with no physical barrier or median, vehicles must stop on both sides of the roadway.
• Yellow flashing lights indicate that the bus is preparing to load or unload children. Motorists should slow down and prepare to stop their vehicles.
• Red flashing lights and extended stop arms indicate that the bus has stopped, and children are getting on or off. Motorists approaching from either direction must wait until the red lights stop flashing before proceeding.

Police, who observe a motorist failing to stop and remained stopped for a school bus, can issue the violator a citation. Drivers failing to stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk and drivers failing to exercise due caution when encountering children can be issued a citation.

Kids in our cluster will be returning to school soon. This will mean changes to the au pair schedule and possibly to the duties.  It is very important to communicate these changes to avoid problems.

I suggest you discuss the following (if applicable):

• Au pair’s work schedule
• The children’s school and activity schedules
• Where the children get dropped off and picked up and who will be doing this
• What to do if a child is staying home sick, late to school, does not get off the bus (if they are supposed to)
• How to tell if school has been cancelled or delayed for bad weather
• Add the au pair to your list of people allowed to pick up the kids from school
• What to pack for lunch
• The routine after school (do they have free time before starting homework, what to give for snack, any chores, where do they put their backpacks & lunchboxes)
• How to communicate about what’s going on at school. (Kids in Care Log Books are available upon request from APIA)

Here are some Printable Fill-in-the-Blank School Notes for parents. You may print these out and use them for times when the kids are absent, late, have early dismissal or you need to give permission for something.

If the au pair will be the one going through the children’s back pack and helping with homework, I suggest you designate an area for putting things that need to be read and/or signed by parents.

Reminder: It is illegal to leave a child alone in the car. Please make sure that your drop off routine does not include leaving children at home or in the car while dropping off another child.  Even if a host parent gives permission to do this, it is not allowed, because it is against the law.

Au pairs should complete a minimum of  6 credits, 72 hours of classroom time, 7.2 CEUs or a combination of the above to meet the education requirements. Classes must be taken at an accredited post secondary institution.

Host family will pay $500 education allowance plus parking pass, metro transportation costs and/or gas to and from school. An Au Pair should budget approximately $200 of their personal funds to complete the J-1 visa education requirement.

Please click in EDUCATION on this blog to check our Education Options for accredited schools in our cluster area. If you want to take a class at a school not listed here on my blog, please check with me first to make sure it is accredited. Otherwise, it would not count toward your education requirements.

An Au Pair MUST complete the education requirement at least 30 days before the end of her year to be eligible for a second year extension and/or to receive an APIA completion certificate.

An au pair is required to submit a copy of the class certificate, transcript or letter from the college stating number of credits, course name, and dates of the class to their community counselor.