Area bus drivers are getting in gear for a new school year.

From classroom training to drug tests to eye exams, there are many details to take care of before the first day, officials said.

“The year starts off really, really hectic,” said Stacey Harmon, Catoosa County Schools transportation manager. “There are a lot of questions from parents about routes, bus stops, times.”

Catoosa County schools begin Thursday.

Most of the requirements for bus drivers involve state-mandated standards, but each county may vary somewhat on local regulations, Ms. Harmon said.

State requirements include an overview of traffic laws, signals and roadway markings, according to the Georgia Department of Education’s Web site.

Drivers also must brush up on the effects of friction and gravity when stopping a bus and methods for loading and unloading students. From railroad crossing rules to accident procedures, officials said there is much to remember.

Drivers in counties such as Walker and Catoosa must have a physical examination each year and must attend a refresher course taught by state Department of Education officials.

Skills tests also are required every year. Drivers have to practice parallel parking, bus evacuation protocol and stop sign procedures, just to mention a few, officials said.

Then drivers also must practice driving a real route with children on the bus as a supervisor watches.

Walker County bus driver Robin Dobbins said she and her colleagues also watch training videos, learn to be aware of the weather and are responsible for keeping their buses tidy.

To prepare for Walker County’s first day of school Friday, Ms. Dobbins said she spent about eight hours washing and cleaning her bus.

Walker County Director of Transportation Kevin Richardson said it takes a lot of composure to be a school bus driver.

“Having your back to up to three classrooms worth of students is quite challenging,” he said. “It does involve a lot of discipline training.”

At the beginning of each year Ms. Dobbins talks to the students about appropriate bus conduct, she said.

“When you get them on the school bus at the first of the year, you say, ‘This is the way I prefer you to ride,’” she said. “I said we are a riding classroom, and you can’t be running around and yelling.”

A 2006 study from the Columbus, Ohio, Center for Injury Research and Policy cited on the National Coalition of School Bus Safety’s Web site reports there are 17,000 school bus-related injuries annually.

The most common injuries, 24 percent, occurred when children were getting on or off the bus, according to the report.

In March of this year 20 people were sent to the hospital in Springville, Ala., when a bus full of fifth-graders crashed on Interstate 59. In the same month 11 students were taken to the hospital with injuries after an accident in Georgia’s Cherokee County, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.

A 1955 bus accident involving a train in Spring City, Tenn., has haunted the community for decades, archives also show.

A Murray County, Ga., school bus hit by a train in Polk County, Tenn., near Tennga in March 2000 killed three children and injured several others.

“A train is our worst nightmare,” Ms. Dobbins said.

Preparation is essential because lives are at stake, Ms. Dobbins said. She said she gets to know her students and takes their safety very seriously.

“We are the first person they see and the last person they see at school,” she said. “They are like all your little babies.”

Ms. Dobbins said it is the connections with the students and their families that make all her hard work worthwhile. She encouraged all parents to feel free to contact their child’s bus driver.

Her favorite part of the job is seeing a happy child, she said.

“The kids get on the bus and they have passed a spelling test or math test and they are all lit up,” she said. “You take them under your wing and encourage them to get the best education.”

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