Bluth Leads List of 2018 NAPT Summit Award Winners


L


inda F. Bluth, Ed.D., became the second female and 19th


member of the NAPT


Hall of Fame on Monday, highlighting a 39-year career in the school bus industry


that has been rooted in her tenacious and unwavering advocacy for the rights of children with disabilities. “A Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) for


children with disabilities cannot be accomplished without safe transportation to and from school,” she commented during her acceptance speech. “I want to thank the industry and NAPT for their support in meeting this goal.” Te NAPT past-president and advisor emeritus


for the NAPT Special Needs Committee specifically thanked NAPT Executive Director Mike Martin; fellow NAPT past-presidents Ed Donn, Keith Henry and Alexandra Robinson; Kathleen Furneaux, executive director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute; Launi Harden, director of transportation for Washington County School District in Utah; and Marisa Weisinger, executive secretary of the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation.


Bluth rose to prominence in the school bus industry in the early 1990s as program director of monitoring and evaluation for the Maryland Governor’s Office of Children, Youth and Families. She then became assistant superintendent of compliance for Baltimore City Public Schools before transitioning to the Maryland State Department of Education. Tere, she has served as chief of nonpublic placements, chief of the office of special education, quality assurance technical specialist, and most recently, as a special initiatives and transportation education consultant. Her career in education began in 1965 as a teacher


of slow learning students and emotionally disturbed children for Akron Public Schools in Ohio. She was a teacher of “educable mentally handicapped” students and a tutor for homebound handicapped children for the next three years at Lindenhurst Public Schools in New York. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in elementary


education from the College of Emporia in Kansas in 1965, and a master’s degree in tests and measurements a year later from Kansas State Teachers College. In 1972, she received her educational doctorate in intellectual disabilities and emotional disturbances from the University of Illinois. She began presenting nationally on spe- cial education, special needs transportation and Head Start/preschool and school choice issues in 1975. She gave her first NAPT conference presentations on Public Law 94-142 (better known as FAPE) and special education transportation, in 1982. She said she will head back out on the speaker circuit in 2019, though she added that she plans to only present at state school bus association conferences. Bluth has also worked with dozens of


law firms nationwide as an expert witness in court cases involving disability trans- portation compliance issues. Bluth has also taught dozens of special education courses at such institutions as Johns Hopkins


“One of my favorite activities is seeing special


friends. It never gets old,” she added. Bluth was NAPT president in 2009-2011, and


served as a two-time special needs committee chair. She was elected NAPT director at large for 1995- 1998 and received the association’s Distinguished Service Award in 2000. She was appointed to the NAPT Foundation Board of Trustees in 2015, the same year she took a seat on the Linwood Center Board for individuals living with autism and related developmental disabilities. Q’Straint/Sure-Lok named her its Special Needs Transportation Award winner in 2013. Bluth has authored five editions of Transporting


Students with Disabilities, and has written over 125 publications and articles in the fields of school trans- portation and special education.


6 THE SHOW REPORTER • OCT 26-31, 2018


University, University of Illinois and University of Alabama. She holds a permanent certification in elementary and special education in New York state, plus a current certification in NAPT’s Special Needs Endorsement Program and in Maryland, ranging from an elementary and middle school teacher, prin- cipal and supervisor, to supervisor of transportation, to superintendent. •


Editor’s Note: Bluth has presented at 18 of the 25 STN EXPO Reno conferences, including the very first event in 1994. She is an emeritus member of the Tenured Faculty for the Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs National Conference. Dr. Bluth has also been a contributing editor to STN since 1994 and has written 72 articles in the magazine.


Linda Bluth


2018 NAPT SUMMIT AWARDS


NAPT HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE Dr. Linda F. Bluth (Maryland)


NAPT DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Joe Hart, Director of Transportation (Ret.), Killeen ISD (Texas)


CONTINUING EDUCATION AWARD (Sponsored by Thomas Built Buses) Laura Preston, Assistant Director of Transportation, Liberty Public Schools (Missouri)


SPECIAL NEEDS TRANSPORTATION AWARD (Sponsored by Q’Straint/Sure-Lok) Peggy Stone, Supervisor of Transportation for Exceptional Students, Kanawha County Schools (West Virginia)


SCHOOL BUS DRIVER TRAINING AWARD (Sponsored by IC Bus) Jimmy Lacey, Supervisor of Training & Safety, Kanawha County Schools (West Virginia)


HEROISM AWARD (Sponsored by Blue Bird Corp.) Karson Vega, Student La Grange ISD (Texas)


Look for more on these winners on stnonline.com.


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