This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage.
The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school.
The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools’ Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses.
The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.
Sangster Elementary School fifth grader Kevin said the simulation was “a little scary.” He volunteered to lead his classmates off the smoke-filled bus by shouting “scoot, slide” to help students safely dismount from the window of the vehicle onto the ground below.
He ultimately told himself not to be scared.
“You just try to focus on saving the people and yourself,” he said.
Keeping calm is a big takeaway from the lesson, one the school district’s senior operations manager for transportation, John McCracken, wanted kids to remember.
“They’re being exposed to some things, so if anything ever does go wrong, their minds have kind of already been there and their bodies can just follow along with what they’ve learned,” McCracken said.
Most safety patrols are fifth and sixth graders, though McCracken said some fourth graders also participate. More than 140 Fairfax County elementary schools take part in the patrol program.
Safety Patrol co-sponsor Judy Tuevner said prospective patrols at her school fill out an application. Sponsors then consult with teachers to determine whether a student would make a good leader.
“These are students who have volunteered to do these duties and to help serve their fellow students to make the bus a safer place,” McCracken said.
“Everyone wants to be a safety patrol,” Tuevner added, noting that her school, Sangster Elementary, often has had more than 100 patrols at one time. This year, it has 78.
For the students, it’s a chance to start the school year with a little more responsibility.
“We want them to have fun,” Tuevner said. “And we want to have them work to become really good leaders.”
The first day of the 2026-27 school year for Fairfax County Public Schools is Monday.
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