More Than 400 Districts Choose Online Training
DALLAS (May 1, 2008) — By the end of this month, Texas school districts must complete mandatory school bus evacuation training for all students and teachers. The state enacted House Bill 3190 last September requiring the training to be conducted by each school district twice annually, or each semester, by Dec. 1 and May 31. “It appears to be going very well from what we can tell by talking to districts,” said Charlie Kennington, transportation director for Region 4 Educational Service Center in Houston. “Most have completed their first semester requirement and are aggressively going after the coming deadline. But he added some larger districts are running into problems because they have to train dozens if not hundreds of teachers plus complete student bodies that can number in the thousands, not just those students who ride the school bus. Part of the hour-long training requirement must include an onboard segment. In response, SafePupilTransport.com created a school bus evacuation training compliance kit that includes two training videos on DVD. The first is used to train instructors on how to perform the evacuation walk-through with students, and the second is for students to view prior to participating in the walk-through itself. “Rather than struggling to create a program themselves, we are encouraging school districts to rely on the SafePupilTransport compliance kit,” said Jay Wommack, the founder, president and CEO of SafePupilTransport.com. “This will eliminate logistical problems, as well as time and cost constraints. Simply put, if school districts act now, we can help them get into compliance on time.”The package also provides all necessary paperwork districts are required to file with the state, as well as handouts for students and teachers, reporting forms, question and answer guides, and detailed instructions on how and when to implement each step of the program. At this writing, approximately a third of the state’s more than 1,200 school districts had paid a one-time licensing fee of $150 so they could share the entire program system-wide with every teacher, pupil and facility, Wommack added. House Bill 3190 also prohibits any person convicted of certain offenses from operating a school bus for 10 years after the offense, and it requires operators to wear seat belts if available, prohibits operation of a school bus if the manufacturer’s design capacity is exceeded, and authorizes to prohibit passengers from standing or sitting on the floor of a bus, or anywhere that is not a seat.
|
