Blackboard Announces Recent Additions to K-12 Client Community; K-12 Districts Turn to Blackboard for Professional Development, Community Engagement and Home--School Connections

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 2006--K-12 schools around the country continue to rely on e-Learning solutions from Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) to meet the varying needs of districts, schools, faculty, students and parents. Blackboard is currently participating in the NECC 2006 conference (Booth 324) in San Diego and is pleased to announce the following recent K-12 clients to license Blackboard(R) e-Learning software and services:

    --  Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia

    --  Colorado Springs School District #11 in Colorado

    --  Dodge City Public Schools in Kansas

    --  Ector County Independent School District in Texas

    --  Lee's Summit School District in Missouri

    --  Peninsula School District #401 in Washington

    --  Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma

The Blackboard learning management platform is used by more than 400 K-12 clients spanning 46 states around the country for e-Learning programs, professional development efforts, home-school connections and community involvement.

"When students are absent, they can check Blackboard from home to see what they missed in class and what their homework is," said Peter Balas, a teacher at Minnie Howard School in Alexandria City Public Schools. "They can then come to the next class on par with their classmates. Blackboard (technology) puts a whole new spin on make-up work."

Colorado Springs School District #11 selected the Blackboard Learning System(TM) as a key professional development tool for the districts' 2,000 teachers and faculty. The platform will be hosted through Blackboard ASP(SM) Services, which provides 99.9% guaranteed performance reliability, with professional hosting experts monitoring the application 24 X 7.

"We are excited to see the continued growth of Blackboard's K-12 client community," said Michael Chasen, president and chief executive officer of Blackboard. "The expansion of this community suggests that the K-12 market is ready to embrace a comprehensive technology platform to enhance teaching and learning. It is exciting to be part of this evolution and we look forward to working closely with our K-12 clients to foster continued innovation."

For more information on Blackboard solutions for K-12, please visit http://www.blackboard.com/inpractice/k12/.

About Blackboard

Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. With two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite (TM) and the Blackboard Commerce Suite (TM), Blackboard solutions are used by millions of people at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Blackboard

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Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 10, 2006 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of July 6, 2006. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to July 6, 2006.

CONTACT: Blackboard Inc.
Melissa Chotiner, 202-463-4860, ext. 2404
Mchotiner@blackboard.com
www.blackboard.com
or
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
Amy Storey, 202-828-8819
storeya@fleishman.com

SOURCE: Blackboard Inc.