Why Don’t More School Buses Have Seatbelts?

On the surface, it seems nonsensical. A school bus, which is designed to transport society’s most precious cargo—children—is often missing a fundamental feature of safe transportation: seatbelts. Not making use of a tool proven to save lives in an accident appears inexplicable; drivers and passengers in other vehicles can be ticketed and fined for not buckling up. When auto collisions do occur, we often evaluate the severity of injuries based on who was (and wasn’t) wearing one.

So why don’t more school buses come equipped with seatbelts? Believe it or not, the answer has something in common with eggs.

1. The School Bus Theory of Safety
2. The Argument for Seatbelts on School Buses
3. School Bus Seatbelt Policy Depends on Where You Live
4. Increasing School Bus Safety

The School Bus Theory of Safety

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), when it comes to protecting the health and safety of passengers, school buses have traditionally relied on a fundamental principle known as compartmentalization. Instead of fixing an occupant in place via a seatbelt, the objective is to keep them protected utilizing the design of the school bus cabin itself.

School buses typically have high-backed seat benches that are grouped tightly together and bolted to the floor of the bus. Aesthetically, it’s not a great design choice, but it’s purposeful: In the event of a collision, kids are likely to remain within the protective layer of the padded seats. “Students are protected within the seating compartment much like eggs in a carton,” the NTSB writes. Provided the bus is of sufficient size and strength—often in excess of 10,000 pounds—and can absorb shock, the children should largely be protected from serious injury.

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Crash statistics seem to bear this out. An estimated 21 to 25 million children ride on a school bus daily, but fatal accidents are incredibly rare. According to the National Safety Council, 128 people were killed as a result of a school bus crash in 2023, but that number includes passengers of other vehicles, bus drivers, and pedestrians; of the 128, only nine were bus passengers. From 2014 to 2023, children represented just 6 percent of deaths in crashes (113 total).

While those are tragedies not to be minimized, the number of casualties relative to the number of rides makes being on a school bus the safest form of travel on the road—safer, even, than if a child were a passenger in a vehicle with their parents.

Despite the relatively low risk, however, some safety advocates believe seatbelts would provide crucial protection in a specific kind of crash.

The Argument for Seatbelts on School Buses

Compartmentalization works best in front and rear crashes [PDF], but it doesn’t fare quite as well when it comes to side-impact collisions, which can result in rollovers and where children stand a greater chance of being ejected into the cabin. This can be mitigated with lap-shoulder belts, also known as three-point belts, the type commonly found in commercial vehicles.

According to the NTSB [PDF], a 2014 school bus crash in Anaheim, California, likely did not result in any deaths because roughly 75 percent of students were buckled in, including passengers in a crucial impact zone. A separate crash test demonstration organized by the NTSB and the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration demonstrated that the crash test dummy occupants of a school bus struck by a box truck barely moved when buckled in. Dummies that were compartmentalized, or not buckled in, went airborne. You can see an example of this in the video below.

For seatbelt proponents, the situation is simple. While school buses are safe, why not make them even safer?

One obstacle: money.

Replacing an older fleet of school buses with newer models could approach $1 million or more for a school district. In 2024, Ohio found that adding seatbelts to a new $120,000 bus would also add $19,000 to its cost. For some counties that have never seen a single death from a bus collision, a district might balk at the expense. Nor are seatbelts under any kind of federal mandate. For districts, the question often boils down to whether the increased safety merits the price tag.

While money is the most significant hurdle, it’s not the only one. There’s been debate over whether seatbelts might produce increased risk via unintended means. One hypothetical example is having a belt mandate where a bus driver is expected to pull over and confront a student who isn’t buckled in. The act of stopping the bus and risking a collision from passing traffic might negate any benefit.

Others have also speculated seatbelts might slow down students who need to evacuate a bus quickly, as in the case of fire. Belt advocates say safety drills, where students practice deboarding a bus, can mitigate any problems.

School Bus Seatbelt Policy Depends on Where You Live

Officially, the NTSB endorses the use of lap and shoulder seatbelts on all new, large school buses. (The group prefers them to lap belts, which are found on some buses and cover only the waist.) But neither the NTSB or the NHTSA can insist on the belts as a matter of federal law. That’s up to individual states. (School buses weighing less than 10,000 pounds are different. Because they’re believed to be less effective in reducing injuries via compartmentalization, the NHTSA requires them to be equipped with three-point seatbelts.)

As of this writing, a number of states—New York, California, New Jersey, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Nevada, and Texas—have laws relating to seatbelts on school buses, though policies can vary. Iowa lawmakers, for example, are insisting that new buses come equipped with belts but stop short of requiring older buses be retrofitted with them. The same is true in Texas.

Some states leave the decision up to school districts. In 2023, Ohio convened a school bus safety board after a head-on crash left one student dead and more than 20 injured. The group determined that districts should create their own policies.

Others mandate the presence of seatbelts but not their implementation. In New York, buses made after 1987 are required to have seatbelts, but the state leaves policies of whether to force students to use them up to individual districts. (The exception: the school bus driver, who is required by law to wear one.)

School Bus Accident Data at a Glance

“However, as a group, after hearing from experts, hearing from our bus drivers, looking at the data or the lack of data from states that have mandated seatbelts, and listening to school districts who have tried pilot programs on their buses, we became convinced that a statewide mandate of seatbelts on buses is not the most effective use of government resources to keep our kids safe,” Ohio Department of Public Safety director Andy Wilson said in a press conference.

Ultimately, it may not be up to schools. In 2024, school bus manufacturer Blue Bird announced that all new vehicles would come with three-point belts as a standard feature, meaning that buyers wouldn’t need to make a choice between saving money and improving safety.

What about older buses? While some states have laws exempting them from the seatbelt rule, time may prove to be the answer. In California, for example, seatbelts have been required in new buses since 2005. Any bus manufactured prior to then is likely to reach the end of its anticipated 30-year lifespan by 2035, meaning that most buses on the road in the state will have belts.

Increasing School Bus Safety

Parents who wish for their child to remain safe while traveling on a school bus should make sure their child understands some basic safety measures. According to the NHTSA, children should arrive at bus stops five minutes early to avoid rushing to meet the bus. They should stay at least 10 feet from the curb and board only when the bus comes to a complete stop.

If a child needs to cross the street in front of a school bus, they should walk far enough ahead of the front of the bus—at least 10 feet—so they can make eye contact with the driver and avoid walking in a blind spot. A worry-free trip also depends on whether drivers obey the law when it comes to stopping for school buses. (Typically, a yellow flashing light means the bus is slowing; a red light and stop sign means students are moving on or off.)

Providing everyone obeys the road rules, school buses remain the safest way to get a child to and from class, with the use of seatbelts providing additional protection. Cost-conscious administrators may find the added benefit marginal, but when it comes to child safety, there’s probably no such thing as doing too much.

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