Press Release – For Immediate Release

Time Running Out for Texas School Districts to Complete Bus Safety Training
Online Training Program Already Chosen by More Than 400 Districts Can Help Districts Beat Upcoming Deadline

Big Spring, Texas – April 28, 2008 – Texas school districts must step on the gas to meet the state's May 31 deadline to complete school bus safety training mandated by House Bill 3190. The good news is that a comprehensive online training program, SafePupil www.SafePupil.com, can make safety compliance easy for all districts to pass.

With the compliance deadline looming, more than 40 percent of the state's 1,152 school districts have already chosen SafePupil to help meet school bus evacuation training requirements, according to Jay Wommack, CEO of Texarkana-based Vertical Alliance Group, which developed the safety training program. SafePupil offers a compliance kit specifically created to address Texas HB 3190, which requires school districts to train all students and teaching staff on emergency school bus evacuations at least twice annually.

Authored by Rep. Helen Giddings and sponsored by Sen. John Carona, the bill also prohibits any person who has committed certain offenses from operating a school bus for at least 10 years. In addition, it requires operators to wear seatbelts if available, and prohibits school bus operation beyond the manufacturer’s design capacity.

The law officially went into effect on Sept. 1, 2007, and it established Dec. 1, 2007 as the initial compliance deadline for school districts.

"For many school districts working on their own, it was virtually impossible to train dozens of bus drivers and thousands of students by the original deadline," Wommack said. "Because of the enormity of the challenge, the state extended the deadline to May 31."

The school bus evacuation training compliance kit from SafePupil includes two training videos on DVD. The first is used to train instructors on how to perform the evacuation walkthrough with students, and the second is for students to view prior to participating in the walkthrough itself.

"Rather than struggling to create a program themselves, we are encouraging school districts to rely on the SafePupil compliance kit," Wommack said. "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."

In addition to training videos, the package 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.

For a one-time licensing fee of $150, a school district can share the entire program with every teacher, pupil and facility in its system, Wommack said.

Vertical Alliance Group developed SafePupil in response to the reported 16,000 school bus collisions that occur annually nationwide, resulting in 12,000 injuries and 130 deaths, many of which could be avoided with proper safety training. In addition to the HB 3190 compliance kit, the program provides school bus drivers with a wide range of online training.

For more information, and to order or request a free live video demonstration, contact Vertical Alliance Group at 877-792-3866, ext. 107. Or, visit www.SafePupil.com.

Press Contacts:
Kirk Lohse, klohse@verticalag.com, 903-792-3866

About SafePupil
SafePupil is a comprehensive, Web-based safety training resource for school bus drivers. Developed by Texas-based online publisher Vertical Alliance Group Inc., SafePupil gives school districts nationwide the opportunity to offer convenient, proactive safety training to both full-time and extracurricular school bus drivers to help reduce the likelihood of collisions and other incidents. Combining professional online training videos, which run five to six minutes each, with synchronized presentations and follow-up testing, SafePupil provides a total safety training solution not previously available to school districts and their bus drivers. For more information, visit www.SafePupil.com.