The Echo

While looking around to see if our Sec. Ed. had announced her partnership zone schools, I stumbled upon the following tidbit.  I've always liked my daughter's drivers, so I thought that I would share.  BTW, I do thoroughly believe our buses are the safest transportation for students on the road.  A couple years ago, my daughter was the final stop on the route, she disembarked, and while I was talking to the driver, my next door neighbor opened his garage door, floored it into reverse and smacked into the back of the bus.  The bus didn't even have a scratch, but his van sure did.

School Bus Industry Encourages Parents and Children to Love the Bus

Delaware to honor school bus drivers February 14th

(Dover, DE) Parents, students and teachers are celebrating the men and women from the Delaware districts/schools that take more than 107,500 students safely to schools each day as part of the fourth annual National Love the Bus program this February.

The Love the Bus program, founded in 2007 and coordinated by the American School Bus Council (ASBC), is celebrated on Valentine’s Day and throughout February in school districts across the country as a way to raise awareness and appreciation for the hundreds of thousands of school bus drivers who safely transport more than 26 million school children to and from school each day. It is also an opportunity for parents and children to learn more about the safety and environmental benefits of school bus transportation.

“We want to honor the bus drivers that safely take our Delaware students to school each day,” said Ron Love, Delaware’s Supervisor of School Transportation. “Love the Bus is a great opportunity to thank the people that protect our most precious cargo—our children—and serve as role models on the 480,000 school buses that transport children to and from school each day across the country.”

To help celebrate Love the Bus, parents, teachers and children are encouraged to visit the program's Web site, www.LoveTheBus.com to share stories about their favorite bus drivers, and make interactive valentines to email or print and give to their bus driver on Valentine’s Day,

February 14. Educators also may log on to www.LoveTheBus.com to download an educator’s toolkit, which provides details on incorporating Love The Bus into their lesson plans and offers best practices for communicating about pupil transportation.

Bus drivers receive specialized classroom and behind-the-wheel training in driving a school bus, student loading/unloading procedures, student evacuation, student behavior and security management. All school bus drivers are also required to participate in pre-employment, random and post-accident drug and alcohol testing, frequent driving record checks, and pass periodic medical exams to ensure they are physically qualified.

In addition to the qualified drivers, school buses are, by far, the safest vehicles on the road, with a safety record confirmed by government authorities to be better than any other form of transportation. School buses are designed and constructed with more safety features than any other vehicle, and the school transportation industry works continually to incorporate the latest technology, training and testing to keep school buses safe.

Throughout February, the American School Bus Council and its members will hold a series of local events across the United States to educate parents and children about school bus safety.