SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco non-profit for children with disabilities honored the "quiet heroes" that operate wheelchair lifts, greet students with smiles and navigate the city’s streets early each morning at an awards gala this past weekend.

It was about five minutes before eight in the morning when the cell phone ringer interrupted what would constitute as rush hour in St. George, Utah, a quaint high-desert community nestled between Zion National Park and the state’s border with Arizona and Nevada.

New York City transportation safety training school owner Maria Sonaly Caro understands the necessities and nature of special needs children

When Maria Sonaly Caro began working with special needs students as a school bus monitor and then as a driver in the New York City area more than 10 years ago, she began to notice how their conduct at times differed from other students. Some were extremely vocal, while others never made a sound. This broad spectrum of behaviors led her to research some of the disorders listed on the route sheets provided by the board of education and, later, to open MaSca Transportation Safety Training School, the first school in the NYC area to be owned and operated by a Hispanic woman.

Annual Transporting Students With Disabilities and Preschoolers Conference and Exhibition highlights teamwork, communication

Little Rock, Ark., was already city of bridges. Six link the towns of North Little Rock and Little Rock. On the east side of the city, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center acts as sort of a seventh, unfinished bridge. Then there’s the city’s 1957 attempt at school integration with the famous “Little Rock 9.” But during a speech at the 17th Annual Transporting Students With Disabilities and Preschoolers Conference and Exhibition by Education Compliance Group’s Peggy Burns, the city’s status as a place for connections became even clearer.

Dr. Linda Fran Bluth has circled a date on her calendar: July 1, 2009.