By: Bivins S.B. No. 517
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the transportation of public school students.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Section 34.003, Education Code, is amended by
1-4 amending Subsections (b) and (c) and adding Subsections (d) and (e)
1-5 to read as follows:
1-6 (b) To transport students in connection with school
1-7 activities other than on school bus routes to and from school:
1-8 (1) only school buses or motor[,] buses [chartered
1-9 from motor bus companies, or district-owned buses meeting the
1-10 safety standards prescribed for vehicles used by motor bus
1-11 companies] may be used to transport 15 [10] or more students in any
1-12 one vehicle; and
1-13 (2) passenger cars or passenger vans may be used to
1-14 transport fewer than 15 [10] students.
1-15 (c) In all circumstances in which passenger cars or
1-16 passenger vans are used to transport students, the operator of the
1-17 vehicle shall ensure that the number of passengers in the vehicle
1-18 does not exceed the designed capacity of the vehicle and that each
1-19 passenger is secured by a safety belt.
1-20 (d) In this section, "passenger van" means a motor vehicle,
1-21 other than a motorcycle or passenger car, used to transport persons
1-22 and designed to transport 15 or fewer passengers, including the
1-23 driver.
2-1 (e) "Motor bus" means a vehicle designed to transport more
2-2 than 15 passengers, including the driver.
2-3 SECTION 2. Section 34.004, Education Code, is amended to
2-4 read as follows:
2-5 Sec. 34.004. STANDING CHILDREN. A school district may not
2-6 require or allow a child to stand on a school bus or passenger van
2-7 that is in motion.
2-8 SECTION 3. SECTION 34.003, Education Code, as amended by
2-9 this Act, applies beginning with the 1997-1998 school year.
2-10 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-11 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-15 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-16 passage, and it is so enacted.