While loading, the driver counts the students and one who should be at the stop cannot be accounted for anywhere outside the bus. What should the driver do?

Explanation

The driver shuts the bus down, takes the key out, and goes and looks, all the way round and underneath, before the wheels turn again. The reason is narrow and specific: the one spot a child can occupy that no mirror and no amount of adjustment will ever reveal is tight against the body of the bus or beneath it, and the only way to rule that out is to stop driving, kill the engine, remove the key so nothing can move while the seat is empty, and use your eyes. Keeping a head count at the stop, learning the children's names where you can, and putting the question to the others are all genuine steps in the same guidance, but they are ways of tracking a child down, not replacements for getting out and looking once the child still has not turned up. The wrong options break two ways. Easing the bus forward is the single worst thing available, because movement is precisely what the walk around exists to forestall until the question has an answer. Carrying on with the route and peering from the window both keep the driver seated, and no mirror, window, or report written up later can see beneath a bus. 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(i) makes loading and unloading children a required knowledge area but states no procedure, so this one is attributed to the manual.

Source: 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(i)