How many school districts in the United States require seat belts on large large school buses of 20-passengers or more? The answer is that no one knows for sure. The issue is complicated by the issue of mandatory installation and mandatory use, and the fact that all small school buses -- more than 100,000 nationwide -- are manufactured with lap belts installed.

The date presented here is based on a 1994 study by the Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida. Altogether, CUTR found more than 800 school districts nationwide with seat belts on their large school buses. CUTR obtained its information from a survey of all state departments of education. But some of the assumptions of that study are no longer valid. Accordingly, the CUTR findings have been modified for the purposes of this report. Each state director of pupil transportation listed in the CUTR report was called again to determine if the districts listed there still require seat belts on large buses, dropped the requirement, or if new districts have been added.

Listed here are the districts found to date by STN that mandate seat belts on large school buses:

Ampitheater S.D.

Denver Public Schools

Deep River

Deerfield

Northampton

Danbury

Cromwell

Dalton City

Skokie 68

Skokie 69

Niles 71

Wilmette 39

Skokie 73.5

Glenview 34

Glencoe 35

Manchester

Acton-Boxborough

Marblehead

Attleboro

Natick

Bridgewater-Raynham

Northborough

Burlingon

Northboro-Southboro

Deerfield

Northampton

Fall River

Rowley

Framingham

Salem

Frontier

Somerville

Gateway

Southborough

Lincoln

Sudbury

Littleton

Wayland

Wentzville

Lebanon

West Windsor

Tulsa Public

With 725 school districts, New York comprisess the largest number of potential seat belt districts in the nation. However, under New York's school bus seat belt law the installation of lapbelts is mandatory for all new buses as they come into the fleet, but use of the belts is not required unless the district school board adopts a policy mandating their use.

According to the Albany-based Pupil Transportation Safety Institute, 80 percent of the nearly 45,000 yellow school buses in the state of New York -- about 36,000 vehicles -- are now equipped with seat belts. Meanwhile, a study conducted by the New York Dept. of Education Pupil Transportation Unit in the fall of 1997 found that 45 school districts statewide have adopted a policy requiring use.

Although the CUTR study was conducted a year after New Jersey enacted its school bus seat belt law in July 1992, only two New Jersey districts were counted for purposes of the study. The law does not require retrofitting and only applies to new buses. According to CUTR, "Due to the newness of the New Jersey statute at the time the study was being conducted, the New Jersey student transportation director felt that the two school districts listed in the table were the only ones out of the 611 in the state that could provide valid responses to the questionaire."

School transportation officials in New Jersey report that nearly all 611 districts in the state have begun the transition to seat belts. Linda Wells, pupil transportaiton specialist in the New Jersey DOE esimates that about 6,000 of the 16,000 yellow school buses in the state have been replaced since the law was enacted in late 1992. This estimat is based on a normal 12-year replacement cycle.

Adding New Jersey's 611 districts, New York's 45, and xx others from xx states, brings the known total to xx school districts in the U.S. that both mandate installation and use of lapbelts in large school buses.

If users know of other districts than those listed above, click here to submit your information to STN's national database of school districts that mandate seat belts on large school buses. Be sure to include a contact name, phone number and address of the district you are submitting so the editors can independently confirm the information. The information will then be posted to this website.