by Nicole Piscitani • Feb. 9, 2024

At the direction of Gov. Mike DeWine, a group of 13 partnering groups and individuals were asked to serve on a panel to review the state's school bus-related regulations and safety requirements. The group convened in August 2023 and actively met throughout the fall as they examined a wide range of school bus safety areas, including:

  • school bus regulations;
  • bus design, maintenance and inspections;
  • driver licensing, certification and training;
  • safety technology;
  • crash risk factors;
  • takeaways from previous crashes;
  • alternative modes of school transportation and related risks;
  • seat belts;
  • safe transportation for special groups;
  • critical incident protocol.

DeWine announced the group’s report on Jan. 31, 2024, which included 17 recommendations.

These recommendations could impact the work of the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS), the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW), the state legislature and school boards.

The first area in which the work group recommended changes pertains to bus driver recruitment and retention. The report made the following statement, “Supporting and investing in bus drivers is critically important to the goal of keeping students safe. Despite employing more than daily 17,000 drivers, Ohio’s school districts still struggle with a shortage of qualified individuals to cover 710,000 routine miles each school day. Driver shortages inevitably result in a greater burden being placed on the remaining drivers, increasing the stress and burnout of the entire bus driver workforce and ultimately impacting student safety.” The following recommendations are to address the issues around the school bus driver shortage.

  • School districts should identify, share and encourage bus drivers to participate in professional development opportunities.
  • DEW should work with the ODPS to create and offer wellness programming specific to school bus drivers. School districts should develop policies to ensure bus drivers can take advantage of this wellness support.
  • School districts should develop school bus driver performance review policies and conduct annual performance evaluations.

The work group’s next recommended changes are professional development, training and education. Noted in the report was the results of a survey that OSBA sent to all school boards last fall, which reported, “65% of school board representatives who responded to the Ohio School Boards Association’s survey recommended that communities improve school bus safety messaging aimed at members of the public, including teenage drivers, adult drivers and pedestrians.” The professional development recommendations include:

  • DEW should require and provide a curriculum for six hours of annual bus driver training.
  • ODPS and DEW should partner to expand advanced driver training for Ohio school bus drivers. Additionally, the work group recommends that the state fund the program to allow for maximum participation by local school districts at no cost.
  • DEW should adopt rules requiring that school districts offer school bus safety orientation to students, parents and guardians at the beginning of each school year.
  • The Ohio State Highway Patrol should initiate collaboration between state and local law enforcement partners to develop law enforcement training on school bus inspections and the most common safety risks for student passengers.
  • ODPS should develop educational materials and wide-ranging public service announcements on school bus traffic safety laws and best driving practices.
  • DEW should assess whether it is appropriate to increase the minimum number of required training hours for school bus mechanics.

 

The third area of recommendations pertains to school bus safety features. Currently, only eight states in the U.S. mandate seat belts on school buses. The work group studied the seat belt issue and ultimately determined that it is the school district's decision on whether to have school buses with seat belts. The report cited findings of the OSBA survey: “A survey by the Ohio School Boards Association found that most districts have not added seat belts to buses due to the significant cost and concerns over unintentional consequences such as students being trapped by a seat belt after a crash or students using seat belts as weapons.” However, the workgroup encourages any school district that wants to add safety features to their buses to have those resources available and acknowledges the cost implications, as stated in the recommendation:

  • DEW should work with the Ohio General Assembly to develop and fund a grant program to help school districts invest in school bus safety features such as, but not limited to, seat belts. The grant program should be needs-based.

The fourth area of recommendations falls under road and traffic safety. The work group found that most school bus crashes that result in injuries and fatalities are caused by other drivers. Regarding the enforcement of drivers passing a school bus, OSBA conducted a survey that provided additional information to the work group on the fines issued to drivers who failed to stop for school buses. Those fines ranged from $25 to $250; Ohio law has a maximum fine of $500. The following recommendations are to address penalty issues and school zones:

  • ODPS should work with the Ohio General Assembly to strengthen penalties for drivers who violate traffic laws in school zones and around school buses.
  • The Ohio Department of Transportation should support cities, townships and villages to assess safety conditions on local roads in and around school zones. 
  • School districts should conduct safety audits of their bus routes, bus stops and school pickup/drop-off sites on school property to reduce safety risks and mitigate the severity of school bus crashes.

The next area of recommendations is in emergency response. While school bus crashes that result in serious injuries are rare, the work group developed recommendations that would better prepare school bus drivers, among others, if such an incident were to occur:

  • School districts should engage school bus drivers in critical incident response planning and include them in realistic, scenario-based critical incident exercises.
  • The Ohio State Highway Patrol should hold regular school bus stakeholder meetings to identify and mitigate gaps in critical incident responses to school bus crashes and other bus-related security issues.
  • DEW should expand its post-crash report to collect additional information and publish the data annually to inform future policy decisions and aid in determining school bus driver professional development needs.

The last area of recommendation was commercial bus service. Although not initially included in its scope of work, the work group added this recommendation due to schools needing to contract bus services for nonroutine trips:

  • School districts should adopt policies that require a thorough evaluation of contracted commercial bus services.

Download the comprehensive report laying out the working group’s recommendations, including how and why they came to the recommendations.

Posted by Angela Penquite on 2/12/2024