BISD works towards compliance on seatbelt law

A new state law is in place that requires all school buses in Texas to be equipped with three-point lap and shoulder seatbelts, regardless of production year. Breckenridge ISD has begun the process of getting into compliance with the law. 

Through Senate Bill 546, Texas school districts must either retrofit their current buses with seatbelts, get rid of them and get new buses or declare that it’s not in the budget to be able to do it. 

That’s according to Jeremy West, the district's director of district services, who is heading up the work on the buses. West presented to the BISD school board Monday, Oct. 13 about the bus situation. 

West said that the cost to retrofit buses with seatbelts is about $30,000 per bus, as they would have to physically take the seats out and replace them in order to put the seatbelts in. 

This bill expands upon the 2017 requirement which only applied to buses manufactured in 2018 or later and allowed exemptions based on district budgets. School districts are able to apply for exemptions if costs are prohibitive according to the bill, but must report to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) before the 2025-26 school year ends. 

“TEA wants the report by this school year because then, of course, they are going to take all those numbers from the state and kind of see what that looks like,” West said. “Then possibly decide that they want to provide some funding…So it’s a little bit of a hurry up and wait, but we’ve got to decide something by the end of this school year and declare which route we want to go."

West added that districts then have until September 1, 2029 to get in full compliance with the bill. The bill states that TEA must collect all district data by January 1, 2027, then calculate statewide seatbelt retrofit costs and report findings to legislative leaders. 

“I’ve talked to the board previously in closed session…we’re behind schedule on buses. We know that; we’ve got to get up to speed,” West said. “...If we stay on schedule, our bus fleet is 20. The recommendation is to age buses out after 10 years.”

The school board approved the purchase of two small buses for the total cost of $112,248, which West said is in the budget as part of getting on schedule. 

“If we can stay at that number…if we start this year and we buy two buses until 2029, we’re going to have 10 new buses,” West said. 
While seatbelts must be implemented per the law, there is nothing in the bill that requires them to buckle students in. 

“That’s never been a recommendation on a school bus. I’ve been driving buses since 1997 and they’ve never had seatbelts; they’re not recommended to have seatbelts,” West said. “Now we have to have razor blades/cutters to be able to cut kids out of seatbelts, because they don’t compartmentalize seats. They’re not meant to have seatbelts.”

West added that in Stephens County it’s more likely that a bus catches on fire than it is for the bus to hit something big enough to jar a kid out of a bus seat. 

“Having a bunch of kids strapped in the seatbelts on a burning bus would be bad,” West said.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Jose Menendez is a direct response to a fatal 2024 crash that involved a Hays CISD school bus and a cement truck that tragically claimed two lives including a pre-K student.

Following that tragedy, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted a comprehensive investigation centered around school bus passenger safety.