Have you thanked your school bus driver lately?

This month, the American School Bus Council encourages parents, students, teachers and school administrators to celebrate ‘Love The Bus,’ a national education campaign designed to raise awareness of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who safely drive more than 25 million children to and from school each day.

“School bus drivers are one of the greatest assets of the school bus industry, for they are entrusted with the safety and well-being of our children,” said Donald Tudor, co-director of the American School Bus Council and director of transportation for the South Carolina Department of Education. Added Pete Japikse, co-director of the American School Bus Council and pupil transportation director for the Ohio Department of Education, “‘Love the Bus’ is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the drivers who not only keep our children safe, but also serve as role models, mentors and friends to schoolchildren across the country.”

Beginning today, parents, teachers and children can visit the program’s Web site, www.LoveTheBus.com, to share stories about their favorite bus drivers, and make interactive valentines to e-mail 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 educators’ toolkit, which provides details on incorporating “Love The Bus” into their lesson plans and offers best practices for communicating about pupil transportation.

Throughout February, the Council will hold a series of local events throughout the United States to educate parents and children about school bus safety. On Capitol Hill, members of Congress will have the opportunity to participate in “Love The Bus” activities by touring a state-of-the-art school bus that includes the latest safety, security and environmental features, and speaking with members of the school transportation industry about federal funding for security enhancements and clean diesel programs. Even though school buses constitute the largest public transportation network in the United States, the federal government does not directly assist communities with funding for school transportation.

On February 14, the Council will release a position on the use of cell phones by school bus drivers and introduce its Guidelines on Pupil Transportation to help school districts, school bus companies and pupil transportation officials ensure that school buses remain the safest mode of transportation for the nation’s schoolchildren.

About the American School Bus Council
The American School Bus Council represents a unified voice of the school transportation industry – including public and private transportation providers, school bus manufacturers and state officials responsible for pupil transportation. The Council is committed to providing safe, effective, efficient and healthy transportation for the more than 25 million schoolchildren who ride more than 475,000 school buses each day.

The Council's members include NAPT (National Association for Pupil Transportation), NASDPTS (National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services), NSTA (National School Transportation Association), Blue Bird Corp. of Fort Valley, Ga., IC Corporation of Warrenville, Ill., and Thomas Built Buses of High Point, N.C.

For more information, visit www.AmericanSchoolBusCouncil.org. Media may call 202-530-4599 or e-mail schoolbuscouncil@bm.com.