Corpus Christi ISD special education program ‘needs intervention’<\/a><\/p>\nSchool bus seat belts in Corpus Christi ISD<\/p>\n
Most of the Corpus Christi Independent School District\u2019s school buses are equipped with three-point seat belts. But a\u00a0substantial\u00a0portion\u00a0of the fleet\u00a0isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Out of 176 buses, 118 have three-point seat belts. Thirty-eight have two-point seat belts. Twenty have no\u00a0passenger\u00a0seat belts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Corpus Christi ISD told the Caller-Times that buses without seat belts are spare vehicles that are rarely used\u00a0and would be taken out of service. However, the 2026 report\u00a0indicates\u00a0that most of those buses\u00a0haven\u2019t yet been removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBuses with no seatbelts or two-point seatbelts are used sparingly, such as in the event a route bus goes in for regular maintenance intervals and repairs,\u201d chief communications officer Leanne Libby said in an email.\u00a0\u201cWhile we do not notify families, we want to assure them that, the majority of the time, our students are on buses equipped with seatbelts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Corpus Christi ISD\u2019s bus fleet includes three sizes, serving 71, 44 and 14 passengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the large buses, 66 have three-point seat belts and 15 have no passenger seat belts.\u00a0For the mid-sized buses\u00a0used for special education, 47 have three-point seat belts and 30 have two-point seat belts. For the small\u00a0activity\u00a0buses, five have three-point seat belts, eight have two-point seat\u00a0belts\u00a0and five have no seat belts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district estimates it would cost $2.4 million to retrofit every school bus that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0currently have a three-point seat belt.\u00a0If the district replaces each bus, it\u00a0would\u00a0cost $6.6 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In most cases, the district plans to replace buses.\u00a0This is because most of the buses without\u00a0appropriate seat\u00a0belts are near the end of their useful life, Transportation Director Kyle Pelichet told the school board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, the district has replaced 10 school buses. Six of these new buses have arrived and four are still on order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next year, it plans to replace 14 school buses that date to 2009 through 2013. For five\u00a0activity\u00a0buses dating to 2015 and 2016, the district plans to retrofit the vehicles with seat belts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the 2027-28 school year, the district plans to replace 15 school buses, 2013-2015 models. The final 14 school buses, which include 2013-2015 models, will be replaced in the 2028-29 school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The average age of buses being replaced is 14 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond the requirement, the district is already behind in the cycle of replacing buses because it went two years without\u00a0purchasing\u00a0new buses between 2018 and 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
School board member Don Clark questioned whether replacement makes more sense due to concerns about the feasibility of retrofitting. Karen Griffith, deputy superintendent of business and support services, said that the board can reconsider the retrofits at a later date with an amendment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Texas Education Code requires that school districts require students to wear a seat belt if the bus is equipped with seat belts for all passengers on the bus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
School board members Alice Upshaw Hawkins and Marty Bell expressed concerns about children unbuckling their seat belts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other Corpus Christi school districts<\/p>\n
Of all the Corpus Christi school districts,\u00a0the Flour Bluff Independent School District\u00a0is in the best position regarding school bus seat belts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district\u00a0has 49 total school buses, including seven special education buses and one activity bus. Four total buses\u00a0do not have three-point seat belts. According to a school board presentation, two of these buses are not used and two are spare buses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These unused and spare buses will be phased out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During an April school board meeting, the Calallen Independent School District\u2019s school board passed a resolution\u00a0indicating\u00a0that the district\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0have sufficient funds to\u00a0purchase\u00a013 new buses\u00a0with three-point seat belts.\u00a0It estimates this would cost over $2.2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The West Oso Independent School District school board also determined it cannot afford to replace its buses without seat belts.<\/p>\n
West Oso ISD Chief Financial Officer Olga Mendez told the board that the\u00a0vendor\u00a0the district had approached for retrofit estimates said it did not recommend that\u00a0option\u00a0due to\u00a0liability\u00a0concerns and the age of the buses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two buses without seat belts are the district\u2019s oldest buses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In order to\u00a0comply, the London Independent School District plans to retrofit three buses and replace four buses for a combined cost of more than $635,000, taking care of about two buses per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Tuloso-Midway Independent School District plans to sell nine buses before\u00a0next\u00a0school year.\u00a0That still leaves four special education buses with only two-point seat belts and 15 large buses without seat belts. The oldest of these\u00a0buses\u00a0dates\u00a0to\u00a02005, though half are post-2010 models.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an email,\u00a0Patrick Hernandez, Tuloso-Midway ISD assistant superintendent for district operations, shared the same concerns about the safety of retrofitted seats brought up by other school districts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Replacing 19 buses will cost more than $3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hernandez said that a school bond election recently approved by voters\u00a0could\u00a0contribute to bus replacements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi schools aim to comply with new bus seat belt law<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Close to 4 out of 10 school buses across six Corpus\u00a0Christi\u00a0school districts don\u2019t have three-point seat belts.\u00a0 While\u00a0most\u00a0of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[108057,155,157,17117,156,8789,57948,4275,106323],"class_list":["post-296763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-activity-buses","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-isd","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-school-board","tag-school-buses","tag-school-districts","tag-seat-belts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_the_corpus_christi_caller_times_136\/31a542c7387e7bdc1b22b72023afa45a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n