Facts About School Transportation

Approximately 400,000 yellow school buses served K-12 education in the U.S. during the 1994-95 school year.

54% of all K-12 students in the U.S., or about 22.5 million school children, ride yellow school buses to and from school.

Extracurricular activities (field trips, sports, etc.) provide an estimated additional 5 million student rides daily.

School buses travel approximately 4.3 billion miles in school service annually, according to the National Safety Council.

School transportation in the U.S. provides approximately 10 billion student rides annually, making it the single largest system of public transportation in the United States.

22.5 million K-12 school children ride yellow school buses to and from school daily. That equates to 90,000,000 boardings and deboardings daily, or 16.2 billion boardings and deboardings during the typical nine month school year.

The American Public Transit Association estimates public transit provides 900 million student rides annually.

The National Safety Council estimates yellow school buses traveled 94.2 billion total pupil-passenger-miles in 1993.

There are 512,797 CDL-qualified school bus drivers in the U.S.

State governments reported spending $10 billion on K-12 school transportation in the 1994-95 school year; no estimates exist of how much local school districts provided.

In the United States an average of $493 is spent annually to transport regular ed students, and an average of $2,461 is spent annually to transport students with disabilities.

The requirements that school provide transportation to students with disabilities is based on the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (formerly the Education of the Handicapped Act), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

School Bus Safety Week is October 20-26, 1996. This year's theme is "Big Yellow Stops, Everyone Stops."

Seat belts in large school buses are only required in New Jersey and New York. Additionally 51 school districts in 13 other states mandate seat belts in large school buses. Meanwhile, the federal government mandates seat belts in all small school buses (under 10,000 lbs. GVW). Seat belt studies dating back to 1969 conducted by Congress, the U.S. DOT, NHTSA and Transport Canada in Canada, have repeatedly concluded that compartmentalization provides better protection to school bus passengers, than do two-point lap belts. No studies have been done on three-point seat belts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates the construction standards of school buses. The Federal Highway Administration regulates school buses in interstate commerce. The National Transportation Safety Board investigates catastrophic school bus accidents. The Federal Transit Administration regulates public transit vehicles. The Federal Highway Administration, through the Office of Motor Carrier Safety, regulates over-the-road motorcoaches used in school transportation service.

State governments, municipalities and local school districts regulate the specifications, purchase and operational standards for school buses. There are more than 12,000 active school districts in the United States.

There are more than 100 Federal, state, provincial, and local government agencies and industry associations involved with school transportation in the United States and Canada.

In 1994-95 school year there were 38,645 yellow school buses manufactured in the United States and Canada, according to STN research.

There were 20 school children killed in the school bus loading zone in the 1994-95 school year, down from 32 in 1993-94. Of the 20 fatalities, 11 were caused by the school bus and nine by passing motorists who failed to stop for the school bus. Source: K-DOE 1994-95 Loading/Unloading Zone Survey

With a fatality rate of 0.01 per 100,000,000 passenger miles, school buses are the safest form of ground transportation in the U.S. reports the National Safety Council.

About 130 motorists are killed in collisions with school buses while 25-30 students are fatally injured in school bus accidents annually, according to NHTSA. Student fatalities most often happen outside when children are run over by their own school bus, or struck by a passing motorist.

Every five years a National School Bus Standards Conference convenes and writes a set of minimum guidelines for school bus construction and operations. The 365 page 1995 report of the 12th National Conference on School Transportation, is available for $25.00 from the Missouri Safety Center, Central Missouri State University, Humphreys Suite 201, Warrensberg, MO 64093, Tel: 816/543-4830.

Special thanks to STN

Drivers Insights

I have driven a School Bus just under one quarter of a million miles. I was licensed to drive sixteen years ago and I have driven full time for the past eleven years. There have been many changes in the past with still more to come. Some changes have improved the safety and others I wonder what purpose they serve.

I want to encourage the transfer of information to the public from the drivers perspective. The drivers are on the roads and streets every day. They know what laws work, need improved or are just plain stupid.

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