TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – Across Texas, school buses are getting a safety upgrade, but it comes with big costs and challenges.
Last year, Texas passed a law requiring all school buses to have seat belts by 2029.
“This is an unfunded mandate, which leaves all of the costs back to the district,” says Darryl Dans, the Transportation Coordinator for Longview ISD. He says finding the necessary funds will be a challenge every school district will face.
“They are telling us there may be grant opportunities, but they’ve not fully made that public yet,” says Dans.
For Longview ISD, they’ve already been working toward that goal. Since 2022, every new bus they’ve purchased already has seat belts.
“We currently have 31 buses that have seat belts,” says Dans. “We have 42 that doesn’t.”
But, adding seat belts isn’t cheap. Dans says the total retrofit cost is estimated at about $34,000 per bus. That means it would cost about $1.4 million to retrofit 42 buses.
The district did a survey, determining they don’t have the money right now.
“But that may change in the future as we approach that 2029 deadline”
They plan to auction off their old school buses that might be broke down or those that have a lot of miles.
“We hold an auction every spring….all school districts across the state of Texas will look at their fleet, analyze it, and the buses that are not meeting their needs, they will auction those off,” says Dans.
Another challenge Dans says there may not be enough companies or supplies to retrofit all the buses across Texas in time, without delays.
“All districts in the state of texas are going to face this challenge,” says Dans. “How many vendors is out there available to do this? And so when you look at the issues that we have is, are the vendors available to retrofit this many buses in the state of Texas?”
Longview ISD plans to buy five new buses with seat bealts every year.
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