Some of your campus's FWS tutors may need assistance commuting to and from their tutoring sites. Resolving transportation issues beforehand may help you recruit and retain tutors who generally favor the conveniences of on-campus employment.
Modes of Transportation. Some America Reads and America Counts campuses have:
- Organized Ride Sharing: If possible, help students arrange carpools. On the tutor application, you may want to inquire whether or not prospective tutors have cars and if they might be willing to drive others. One caution: if a driver has to miss a tutoring session, then other tutors may be without transport.
- Provided Van Service: A number of institutions have used campus vans to transport tutors. Contact your campus's transportation department to inquire whether this is an option.
- Encouraged Use of Public Transportation: If students on your campus have access to a convenient and safe public transportation system, then you may want to encourage them to use it. Once tutoring sites are selected, providing tutors with maps and directions can be helpful.
Compensation for Travel Time. FWS tutors can be paid full wages for the time they spend traveling to and from their tutoring sites. However, any way in which an institution can help minimize the length and expense of travel is consistent with the Department's goal that the FWS funds be spent primarily in direct tutoring contact hours. Also, institutions will not be able to directly reimburse students for travel expenses such as gas or bus fare.
Higher Hourly Wages. Several America Reads campuses, such as Georgia Southern University and the University of North Carolina--Ashville, have opted to pay their FWS tutors higher hourly wages as a means of reimbursing tutors for travel expenses incurred. This option removes the liability that a campus assumes when it pays employees to travel. Since the Department does not regulate the dollar amount of FWS wages paid to eligible students, paying America Counts or America Readstutors a slightly higher wage is acceptable.
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[Sustaining Tutor Interest]
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