With August waning, kids are beginning to dust off the textbooks and school clothes. In just a few short weeks, hundreds of thousands of Washington students will be back riding their buses and traipsing their school-zone sidewalks on their pathway to learning.
No better time than today, then, for those of us who drive to reminder ourselves of some common-sense safety tips and darn-well-betters. Take a look at Washington’s school-bus-safety laws to make sure everyone gets to and from school with neither hitch nor glitch. Also, check out the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration e-pamphlet “Kids, the School Bus & You” for a terrific collection of guidelines of interest to drivers, kids and parents.
Already blazed through all the important transportation safety information? Not to worry, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has even more back-to-school reading for you.
OSPI’s “hot topics” site reviews current education issues in an everyday language that we can all appreciate, while this FAQ resource is also full of informative links. If you’re feely particularly wonky, you may even want to curl up on the ol’ armchair with the Organization and Financing of Washington Public Schools. It’s an in-depth look at school funding, with the first 20-30 pages being the most germane for those yearning to clasp a broad sense of how K-12 education funding works.
Happy back-to-school!