Amid the turmoil over a potential government shutdown, the Senate managed to recognize September as National School Bus Safety Month for the 11th straight year.
Senate Resolution 366 was approved Tuesday by unanimous consent and en bloc, or grouped with several other resolutions, as recited by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Child Safety Network has lobbied all 100 senators over the past decade, with Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska co-sponsoring most of the resulting resolutions. She was joined this year by Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan.
Ward Leber, the founder of CSN and chairman of the nonprofit’s professional advisory board, said this tribute year is in recognition of all current and past senators who voted for the resolution as well as the celebrities who produced school bus safety public service announcements for CSN.
SR 366 states that 48 percent of all K-12 students in the U.S. or more than 26 million, ride 506,250 public and private school buses that travel nearly 4.4 million miles each school year.
It also advocates for the CSN Safe Ride campaign that provides school districts with bus driver training, the latest technology, and free safety and security resources. The resolution allows for the broadcast, digital and social media industries to air PSAs to disseminate information about these free resources for students and student transporters as well as to alert the motoring public about safe driving near school buses and where students are loading and unloading.
CSN said more than 14,000 public and private schools have received the training materials, with over 118,000 school bus drivers being trained. Nearly 167,000 counterterrorism guides have also been distributed.
Meanwhile, School Bus Safety Week is celebrated the third full week of October each year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which next month will be Oct. 16-20.
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