In two weeks, Yonkers mom Cher Santiago, will drop off her son Guy, 5, on a school bus for the first time. It's a new experience for both of them filled with excitement and nerves.

"It's a lot of anxiety and I've never let anyone else care for him in that way, so I'm handing him off for the first time," Santiago said.

This new school year comes amid a push for more safety measures both on and off the bus. Earlier this year, two private school children died after being hit by school buses in Rockland County signaling the need to continue to educate and improve pedestrian safety across the Hudson Valley.

"Parents send us their most prized possession and that's their children, so I think we have a responsibility that once they take them to the bus stop and let them go that they feel safe and comfortable," Yonkers Superintendent of Schools Aníbal Soler, Jr. said.

To combat any fears and proactively prepare students to ride the bus, the Yonkers School District, Westchester's largest, held a First Time School Bus Riders Safety Orientation program on Thursday. The events took place across each of the district's school campuses.

At the William Boyce Thompson school, dozens of parents and their preschool, Kindergartener and new-to-the-district students learned about bus safety and took part in a ride-along on a bus to ease any nerves.

"The best form of prevention is education," Soler, Jr. said.

Educators and transportation safety leaders had several recommendations to keep kids safe this upcoming school year:

The city of Yonkers officially launched its "Yonkers Safe Stop" school bus camera program on Nov. 13, 2023. Cameras yielded 18,132 violations to drivers illegally passing school buses in its inaugural year.