Education officials estimate that every day in Kansas, about 1,000 drivers illegally pass a stopped school bus as it picks up or drops off children.
“When a student gets on or off the bus that, we consider that the most dangerous time,” said Keith Dreiling, the bus safety director at the Kansas State Department of Education. “Because if they’re on the bus, they’re protected inside the bus, but as soon as they exit the bus, this is when we’re going to have issues.”
But with the Legislature not acting on a proposal to help law enforcement crack down on violators of the state stop arm law, the Kansas State Board of Education is pursuing a regulatory change in an attempt to make it safer when loading and unloading a bus.
Legislator: House speaker canceled hearing on a school bus safety bill
In September 2020, 7-year-old Cecilia Graf was killed on her way to school in Abilene. The Dickinson County sheriff said Graf was crossing the street to board her bus, which was stopped with lights flashing, when a 15-year-old high school student hit the girl.
In the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers considered House Bill 2154 to allow cameras on school buses to be used by law enforcement to issue $250 civil penalties to drivers who illegally pass a stopped bus. Educators and law enforcement testified in support, while no one opposed it.
“We do not have any provisions in state law right now that allow for civil penalties to be assessed off of video cameras,” said Rep. Scott Hill, R-Abilene. “Other states do that. Kansas has never started doing it.”
The bill made it out of committee but never got a vote in the full House. Then in 2022, it again made it out of committee but didn’t get a vote in the House.
Hill reintroduced the idea in 2023 with House Bill 2251. It didn’t get a hearing last year or this year, and it’s now dead because it didn’t advance by a legislative deadline.
“I had a hearing scheduled on it, and the hearing got canceled,” Hill told the state board in March. “It’s taken me a little while to figure out exactly what is going on.”
What he found out is “the biggest thing comes back to an invasion of people’s privacy, and people are nervous about that.”
Hill said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, decided to cancel the hearing. A spokesperson for Hawkins didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“They’re not comfortable establishing civil penalties. They need to watch a few more of these videos of people going by buses,” Hill said, referring to videos of drivers illegally passing school buses. “A thousand times in a day is shocking.”
Hill promised to reintroduce the bill next year, if he wins reelection this fall. In the meantime, Hill suggested that maybe schools could put cameras on buses and then publish videos on Facebook to publicly shame violators.
“I don’t know whether this is possible, but in many cases, people being embarrassed on social media might be a stronger deterrent than the $250 that you just pay and it goes away,” Hill said. “Maybe there’s something we can do. We need to make a bigger deal of this before another child gets hit.”
Can state board regulatory change make bus stops safer?
With the Legislature not moving on the camera bill, the state board of education hopes that changing regulations on bus routes and pickup and drop-off areas will mitigate the dangers that children face.
Earlier this month, the board received a proposed amendment to school bus safety regulations. That sets the board up to potentially vote next month on whether to proceed with the formal regulation adoption process.
Scott Gordon, general counsel for the Kansas State Department of Education, said the change would add a requirement that the local transportation supervisor shall, when practical, “avoid establishing stops that would require students to cross any roadway.”
That change would make it so buses, if they aren’t already, would stop on the same side of the road as where they pick up or drop off the students.
“It mirrors the guidance that we already provide to school districts,” Gordon said. “This merely makes it a bit stronger by putting it specifically in regulation.”
State board member Jim Porter, R-Fredonia, described it as making sure the bus is stopping in the safest place.
The regulation change would attempt to make a difference in an area that schools can control, but it would not address driver behavior.
“It seems like what we need to be doing is addressing the driver, the adult, the people that are behind the wheel of the car,” said state board member Michelle Dombrosky, R-Olathe.
How often are drivers illegally passing stopped school buses in Kansas?
“The most dangerous time for students is when they get on and off the bus,” said Dreiling, the bus safety director.
That’s in large part due to drivers not stopping for the stop arm.
Every year, the Education Department collects data on school bus stop arm violations. The data is collected on a single day by participating schools.
