About 17,000 students in Columbus ride the bus to school every day.
With that comes a lot of responsibility for bus drivers to make sure everyone is well-behaved and safe.
John Clarke has been a Muscogee County bus driver for 30 years and says that parents can be there for their kids by helping them understand how important it is to behave on the bus.
"Talk to them and tell them what to do when they get on the bus, when they get off the bus, and when they get to school," said Clarke.
According to officials, the Muscogee County School District had about 1700 bus suspensions last school year.
That is why on Monday, the first day of classes, the school district asked community leaders to Be There: Meet a Bus and Support Students.
"As part of Be There community support for our students, we had greeters come out and meet our buses just to welcome them back and let them know that there are people in the community not just their teachers not just their staff that really care about them and really support them in what they are trying to do here," said Valerie Fuller with the school district.
Fuller says it was also a chance for community leaders to encourage the students to behave on the bus.
At George Washington Carver High School, Columbus City Council Member Bruce Huff and Congressman Sanford Bishop did just that by greeting students as they walked into school.
"We support them with our parent-teacher organizations. We support them in the community with sports. We support them with booster clubs., and of course we just want them to do well. We want to give them every opportunity and every ounce of support that we can give them," said Congressman Bishop.
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