Texas lawmakers have approved a statewide requirement for all public school buses to be equipped with three-point seatbelts by September 1, 2029. The mandate comes from Senate Bill 546, authored by State Sen. José Menéndez. The restraint is similar to the seat belt used in most passenger vehicles, but it is not currently standard across many public school bus fleets.
Funding Concerns
Northside Independent School District’s Director of Transportation Tesilia Soliz and Northeast Independent School District’s Executive Director of Transportation Bill Harrison expressed concerns about the cost of implementing the mandate. “We’re hopeful that there will be grants available,” Harrison said, “but there’s no detail about any of that yet.” Menéndez shared that $10 million has been allocated for a grant to help schools upgrade their buses, but this amount is insufficient to cover the costs for all districts.
Northeast Independent School District alone estimates that it will cost around $13 million to retrofit all their buses with three-point seatbelts. School districts had to inform the Texas Education Agency about the number of buses, the type of seatbelts on each bus, and the cost of upgrades by May 29. The agency is still reviewing the data submissions.
Original reporting: San Antonio, TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
