Bus Safety

Kentucky Department of Education Driver Training Program –​The Pupil Transportation Training Program currently has 692 state-certified driver training instructors who are responsible for training approximately 11,400 certified school bus drivers statewide.
-All driver trainers are required to complete an initial 4-day certification course and a 6-hour annual update training. Kentucky is nationally recognized for its driver training with many states modeling our program. (KDE does not charge a fee for training.)

School Bus Safety – Kentucky Department of Education – ​​​​Each day 8,795 school buses in Kentucky transport over 385,000 students on school buses. As part of the safety awareness campaign in Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), Paula Allen, a Kentucky School Bus Driver Training Instructor, and the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety put together information to help spread safety awareness.

NAPT…Bullying – Two training modules were jointly created by NAPT, the Education Department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and the Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has a webpage dedicated entirely to School Bus Safety. It includes useful tips for increasing school bus safety along with many other resources geared toward school transportation.

National School Bus Safety Week – National Association for Pupil Transportation – is always held the third full week in October. The resource guides and activity booklets can be used to reinforce each year’s theme.

Special Safety Concerns of the school bus …– Every weekday in the school year school transportation systems in the United States operate approximately 440,000 yellow school buses to provide safe transportation for more than 24 million school-aged children. This synthesis documents the various safety issues faced by the school bus industry. Safety issues include each aspect of school bus operations, including the driver, environment, equipment/technology, and organizational design. Information was gathered through a literature review and a survey on school bus safety issues that was disseminated to a variety of professionals associated with school bus operations. … (Transportation Research Board of the National Academies)

Free School Bus Driver In-service Safety Series – The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has available a free school bus driver in-service training series. This series of refresher trainings comprises ten programs on driving a school bus. The ten programs are Driver Attitude, Vehicle Training, Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety, Adverse Weather Conditions, Knowing Your Route, Student Management, Loading and Unloading, Transporting Students with Special Needs, Transporting Infants and Toddlers, and Emergency Evacuation.

NHTSA has also posted – Child Safety Restraint Systems in School Buses – Six modules covering the basics of child safety restraint systems (CSRS) include specific information on rear-facing and forward-facing seats and safety vests. The training is available in English and Spanish and is intended as an introduction to the proper use of CSRS in school buses and as a refresher overview.