Sponsors (2)
The bill substantially upgrades school bus safety—adding seat belts, fire protections, crash-avoidance tech, training, and grants—but does so at meaningful cost and implementation burden, especially for small and rural districts, while raising privacy and regulatory-timeliness concerns.
Children riding large school buses will gain 3-point seat belts at every designated position, reducing injuries in crashes.
Students and drivers face lower fire and smoke risks because buses must have fire suppression systems, improved firewalls, and stricter interior flammability/smoke standards.
Crash prevention and post-crash investigation should improve because buses are required to include automatic emergency braking, electronic stability control, and event data recorders.
Local school districts and taxpayers face substantially higher upfront costs to buy or retrofit buses with 3-point belts, fire suppression, new firewalls, AEB/ESC, detection systems, and event data recorders.
Small and rural school districts may struggle to meet procurement, matching-fund, and timeline requirements, leading to unequal implementation, delayed upgrades, or interruptions to student transportation.
Manufacturers and the supply chain could face higher compliance costs and production delays to meet stricter flammability, firewall, and equipment requirements, which may slow deliveries and raise vehicle prices.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Mandates tougher school-bus safety standards (3‑point belts, fire/firewall, AEB, EDRs, ESC), strengthens driver training, orders studies, and creates grants to buy/retrofit buses.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue rules requiring the inclusion of new safety equipment in school buses, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 4, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress March 4, 2025
Requires upgraded safety equipment and training for U.S. school buses and creates a federal grant program to help local school districts buy or retrofit buses. It directs the Secretary of Transportation and NHTSA to issue or amend vehicle-safety standards within tight deadlines (mostly 1 year) to require 3-point seat belts on heavy school buses, fire suppression and firewall standards, tougher interior flammability rules, automatic emergency braking, event data recorders, electronic stability control, and increased behind-the-wheel training for school bus drivers. The bill also directs NHTSA to study and then require motion-activated exterior detection systems and passenger seat-belt reminder systems, and authorizes grants to states to support LEAs in purchasing or retrofitting buses; funding is authorized as "such sums as are necessary."