A National Action Plan for School Bus Safety

Action-Oriented Recommendations

The action plan proposes 69 specific, impactful recommendations for a diverse array of stakeholders to create a redundant, multi-layered safety net that protects children near the school bus. Key recommendations include:

• State Highway Safety Offices: Integrate school bus safety into Triennial Highway Safety Plans, integrate bus safety into public education campaigns and create formal liaisons with pupil transportation agencies.
• Law enforcement: Harness advanced data analytics to identify high-violation areas and deploy automated technology to provide ubiquitous coverage that amplifies traditional enforcement.
• Educators and school districts: Launch full-fleet stop-arm enforcement programs and implement safety curricula as early as elementary school to help teach students that they have the “passenger power” to speak up about unsafe behaviors.
• Bus drivers: Utilize modern training tools like virtual reality to prepare for unsafe motorist behavior. Prioritize physical and mental wellness to ensure career longevity and help mitigate national driver shortages.
• Private sector: Leverage predictive data to identify dangerous intersections and actively participate in legislative advocacy to help states modernize their enforcement laws.
• AV providers: Rigorously and independently test all technologies and conduct extensive outreach to all communities to make them aware of the technologies they offer.
• Road safety advocates: Humanize data through storytelling to raise public awareness and develop model state legislation with customizable provisions to accelerate the process of enacting impactful policy.
• Judges and prosecutors: Take near-misses seriously by refusing lesser pleas and mandate evidence-based behavior curricula to facilitate actual rehabilitation for offenders.