This past fall, NAPT unveiled its latest professional development offering to help industry professionals achieve greater expertise in transporting students with disabilities and special needs.The NAPT Special Needs Endorsement can be thought of similarly to the school bus endorsement on a CDL. The brain child of current NAPT President Linda Bluth and the NAPT Special Needs Committee, this educational series encourages school transportation pros to increase their operational knowledge while also serving as an outlet for fostering leadership skills.

Starting this July in Reno, Nev., School Transportation News will begin offering NAPT Professional Development Courses, and the Special Needs Endorsement is the first program we'll tackle. In conjunction with NAPT, the STN EXPO will provide four learning experiences to help both NAPT members and non-members take the next step on the road to discovery. And successfully completing the track will look mighty good on the resume.

For years, the STN EXPO has offered one of the required courses, the eight-hour NHTSA Child Passenger Safety Restraint Systems on School Buses preconference workshop. The classroom and hands-on workshop teaching proper installation and securement of child safety restraint systems is not only a pre-requisite for the full 32-hour NHTSA Chill Passenger Safety Technician certification but it is also one of six steps necessary for obtaining the NAPT Special Needs Endorsement.

Other courses to be offered for the first time this year are a four-hour special needs basics workshop, a four-hour behavior management course and an assignment that must be completed during the STN Trade Show on July 27. More information on these courses, including registration, and others will be released shortly on our STN EXPO page and in the print magazine. More in formation on NAPT's course offerings, open to any state association or other conference wishing to provide them, is available online.

Stay tuned!