In advance of School Bus Safety Week Oct. 19-23, the student transportation industry will have an entire month to celebrate the role the iconic yellow vehicle plays each school day, even those that are virtual learning amid COVID-19.
The Senate, which approved SR 659 by unanimous consent on Aug. 6, recognizes that approximately 500,000 school buses transport about 26 million students to and from school during a normal school year. The vehicles log nearly 4.68 billion miles during a 180-day school year, but Independent research conducted by School Transportation News estimates that those miles exceed 10 billion a year when factoring in various activity, extracurricular, field, and sports trips.
The resolution was championed by the 50(c)(3) nonprofit Child Safety Network (CSN) that aims to help parents raise safer, healthier children. It also promotes existing school bus safety and how it can be improved via increased driver training and through technology such as lap/shoulder seatbelts.
School Bus Safety Month will include broadcast and digital media as well as social media campaigns produced by CSN that recognize the roles played by school bus drivers. CSN works with the Transportation Security Administration, which the Senate resolution states has provided security awareness training material to more than 14,000 public and private schools, trained more than 116,800 school bus operators, and provided more than 163,120 counterterrorism guides to child safety and security professionals across the U.S.
The public service announcements also provide free resources designed to safeguard children and encourage the driving public to engage in safer driving behavior near school buses, especially when students load and unload at stops.
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