Local school districts say it’s not “financially feasible” to install three-point seat belts on all school buses, even though the state expects them to by the 2029-30 school year.
“This is a classic, classic unfunded mandate,” said John Craft, superintendent for Northside Independent School District. “If there is such a thing, this is textbook definition.”
Passed last year, Senate Bill 546 builds on school bus safety requirements by requiring that all buses have three-point seat belts, regardless of the year they were made. Before that, only buses made after 2018 were required to have the safety belts.
Currently, districts have bus fleets with a patchwork of seat belt types, operating buses with three-point belts, two-point belts and some with no seat belts.
Seat belts drew lawmakers’ attention again after a 2024 collision between a concrete truck and a school bus from the Hays Consolidated Independent School District resulted in the death of a 5-year-old student. The school bus didn’t have seat belts.
SB 546 doesn’t provide any state funding, requiring school districts to report what kind of seat belts buses currently have, how much it would cost them to be in compliance and whether they can actually afford it. Districts are expected to turn in those reports to the Texas Education Agency by the end of May, and officials are hoping lawmakers either create a funding source or change the law.
“We hope, which isn’t a really good strategy, we hope that the data reveals that the Legislature needs to invest,” said Don Jurek, director of transportation at East Central ISD, when presenting the district’s seat belt report at a board meeting in February.
Most San Antonio-area districts have already presented seat belt reports to the public, and none have said it’s feasible to be compliant with SB 546 by 2029 with their current budgets. They are proposing longer phased plans to replace or retrofit buses.
Retrofitting carries a heavy price tag, ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars in smaller districts to several million dollars in larger districts.
Most school districts say they will have to replace schools buses, since some manufacturers don’t make the necessary seat belt parts, bringing in outside vendors to retrofit buses would likely cancel warranties, and some vehicles are just too outdated.
The shelf life of a school bus is typically between 12 and 15 years, though several stay functional up to 20 years with the right maintenance.
Quotes from school bus manufacturers to retrofit buses vary from around $30,000 to over $70,000 per bus. For comparison, a new school bus generally costs between $100,000 to $150,000.
“It doesn’t make sense to throw good money at a bad bus,” said Bill Harrison, who oversees transportation at North East Independent School District.
Larger districts, larger price tags
Northside ISD operates the second-largest bus fleet in Texas and was the latest to publish its seat belt report. Out of 967 buses, 654 aren’t in compliance, but only 290 of those are eligible for retrofitting for $8.8 million. The rest would have to be completely replaced, which means a larger price tag of $43.7 million.
The district purchased around 90 buses in the past year, using 2022 bond money, which allocated $15 million for transportation. NISD officials are currently weighing going out for another bond election in November, which could help pay for new buses.
NEISD has a bus fleet of 399 and 224 of those buses were built in 2009 or earlier. Nearly 300 buses have no seat belts at all.
While the district could retrofit 351 of its buses to have three-point seat belts, costing about $19.9 million, NEISD is likely to spend closer to $13.5 million since it has the funds to replace several of its older buses.
Last year, NEISD voters approved a $483 million bond, giving the district the green light to make huge infrastructure upgrades and purchases, including buying over 90 new school buses. Purchasing new buses would allow the district to retire older vehicles in batches over the next few years.
Harrison also expects his fleet to downsize by about 20 buses in the next few years as enrollment continues to decrease at NEISD.
NEISD could save money by having its own staff do some of the retrofitting work, though that would still cost NEISD in terms of labor and training. Meanwhile, the district’s transportation team is shorthanded in mechanics and dealing with doubled fuel costs related to the war in Iran, Harrison said.
San Antonio ISD, the third-largest district in the area, may be the only district that has seat belts on all buses, though not all are in compliance. The district has 79 new grant-funded propane buses already equipped with the mandated three-point seat belts, but its remaining 139 buses are equipped with two-point seat belts.
Of the buses with two-point seat belts, only 69 are eligible for retrofitting, which would cost about $2 million. SAISD plans to retrofit about eight buses per year up to 43 buses followed by the phased procurement of 26 new buses.
Like other school districts, SAISD’s enrollment has been dropping in recent years, which could lead to using fewer buses in the future.
“We are currently evaluating future transportation needs to determine the optimal fleet size,” said a district spokesperson. “Any buses that are not immediately retrofitted will be removed from active service and remain out of operation until they are retrofitted or replaced.”
Smaller school district approach
Southwest ISD and Harlandale ISD have also made some progress by purchasing new school buses this year, but being in compliance by 2029 won’t be feasible on their own as most districts are undergoing financial strain.
Southwest ISD recently purchased 19 school buses to get ahead on SB 546, but it would still need to retrofit another 40 buses. Harlandale ISD bought two buses this year though it would still need to retrofit or replace many other buses since the district has several buses built before 2017, including 11 buses from 2007.
Other districts plan to use unspent bond funds and grants to buy new buses that can’t be retrofitted.
Judson ISD is getting close to purchasing 10 new buses using unspent bond funds from 2016, though it would still need to retrofit and purchase several other buses to be in compliance.
At Alamo Heights ISD, which has the smallest bus fleet, 25 out of 32 buses don’t have three-point seat belts and eight buses will have to be replaced. A district spokeswoman said AHISD plans to use a Texas Emissions Reduction Plan grant augmented by district bond funds to pay for the new vehicles.
Retrofitting the remaining buses will likely cost around $350,000.
Edgewood ISD has not released its report but plans to discuss it during a May 19 meeting.
What could enforcement look like?
Authored by state Sen. Jose Menéndez (D-San Antonio), SB 546 is meant to keep students safer in the case of collisions. While Menéndez acknowledges that school buses are already some of the safest vehicles, built to protect passengers from crash force, he said buses have high centers of gravity, predisposing them to roll over.
“In an age of discussing school safety and preventable deaths, it is clear that when school buses are equipped with seat belts, they could save the lives of children, bus drivers, and other passengers on board,” he wrote on the bill’s statement of intent.
While school officials agree, most take issue with a lack of funding attached to the bill, and transportation directors are unsure what kind of support they’ll receive after TEA reviews their reports.
Texas Policy Research, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes bills, said SB 546 was well-intentioned but represents “a case of legislative overreach without clear evidence of a widespread or urgent problem… School buses remain statistically one of the safest forms of transportation for children, and the bill appears to be a reactive response to an isolated tragedy rather than a systemic policy gap.”
School districts are supposed to report bus collisions to the state, but several don’t. Of the state’s 1,200 districts, 978 reported about 1,600 bus accidents and 282 related injuries during the 2022-23 school year, the most recent available data.
TEA will stop collecting seat belt reports by the end of May and plans to create “grant opportunities” for eligible school districts but the agency hasn’t said when.
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