Discusses if any other states have laws requiring seat belts on school buses and estimates of what it would cost to equip the Connecticut school bus fleet.

TRB's Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 17: Special Safety Concerns of the School Bus Industry explores various safety issues faced by school bus operators, including how the issues are currently addressed, barriers to improvements, and suggestions for making improvements in the future.

It begins by looking at the number of children who use school buses to get to school each year, the number who are killed while riding in school buses, and the relative risk of school bus travel compared with other modes of school transportation. [...] All school buses are required to have seat belts for the driver, so the driver deaths are omitted for the purpose of considering the impact of seat belts for passengers. [...] L. 100-17), Congress directed the Department of Transportation (DOT) to contract with the National Academy of Sciences for a study of the principal causes of fatalities and injuries to school children riding in school buses, the use of seat belts in school buses, and other measures that might improve the safety of school transportation. [...] L. 105-134), Congress directed DOT to analyze options for improving the safety of school bus occupants, and directed DOT to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to study the safety issues related to the various modes of school and school-related transportation. [...] NHTSA has announced that it is planning to propose: standardized test procedures for voluntary installed lap/shoulder belts; an increase in the required school bus seat back height (from the current standard of 20 inches above the level of the seat to 24 inches, to reduce the risk of a passenger striking the passenger in the seat ahead); and that smaller (Type II) school buses, currently required.