| TO: | Honorable John Carona, Chair, Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | SB1079 by Carona (Relating to school bus safety; creating an offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill would prohibit the operation of a school bus if the door of the school bus is open or if the number of passengers on the bus exceeds the manufacturer's design capacity for the bus. The bill would authorize the operator of a school bus to prohibit a passenger from standing in the bus or sitting on the floor of the bus or any other location on the bus that is not designed as a seat.
The bill would require each school district to conduct a training session twice each year for students and teachers concerning procedures for emergency evacuation of a school bus. The bill would require the training to occur on a school bus and last for at least one hour.
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.
School districts that do not currently provide school bus emergency evacuation training to teachers and students could incur additional workload-related costs. For school districts that do not provide transportation services, costs could be incurred to lease buses for the purpose of providing the required training twice each year. It is assumed that the reporting requirement would only require the submission of a single document per district twice each year. Based on this assumption, there would be no significant additional cost associated with submitting the required certification records.
| Source Agencies: | 405 Department of Public Safety, 601 Department of Transportation, 701 Central Education Agency
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, KJG, JSp
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