Celebrating School Bus Drivers

School Bus DriverOctober is National School Bus Safety Month. Learn more at http://www.csn.org/october/.

The iconic yellow school bus provides many benefits to our nation’s children and to the general public. Those benefits include safety, environmental, economic, energy and academic achievement. The key to the benefits of yellow school bus transportation come in the form of certified school bus drivers operating the nation’s fleet of 480,000 school buses.

School bus drivers are dedicated individuals from a variety of backgrounds who have made it their life’s mission to transport your children to and from school and school related activities safely and efficiently. School bus drivers receive specialized training in student behavior management, student loading and unloading procedures and security and emergency medical procedures. Drivers must comply with extremely high employment standards that include driving record checks, criminal background investigations and pre-employment and random drug and alcohol testing.

School bus drivers are tested, trained and retested. They are trained professionals with immense responsibility. Our communities have trusted school bus drivers for generations, and with that trust, drivers have made taking the school bus the safest way to get to and from school.

School Bus Safety Month is the ideal opportunity to celebrate school bus drivers. October is the perfect opportunity for parents, students, educators, and administrators to show their appreciation for those responsible for getting our children safely to and from school every single day. Thanking your driver doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Here are some ideas for how to show your driver how much you appreciate all that they do for our children:

  1. Have students create posters thanking bus drivers.
  2. Have students make thank-you cards to hand to bus drivers.
  3. Send press releases to local newspapers announcing school bus driver appreciation.
  4. Place a large, thank-you banner on the side of the campus access road.
  5. Have a breakfast or luncheon for bus drivers.
  6. Make thank-you announcements over transportation departments’ radio systems.
  7. Make thank-you announcements over the schools’ public address systems.
  8. Leave a thank-you letter on each bus.
  9. Have a school assembly to emphasize school-bus safety and to recognize school bus drivers.
  10. Make a “goodie bag” for your bus driver
  11. Use social media to spread the word. Ask your students to get permission to  take a photo of their favorite driver and post it to Facebook and other social media sites with a positive comment.
  12. Have your school’s PTA President or other school official present the driver with a certificate of appreciation. You can download a certificate of appreciation by clicking here.

 

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