SAN ANTONIO – Senate Bill 546 requires all Texas school districts to install three-point seatbelts on buses. However, many districts have buses both with and without this requirement, and the state is not paying for the upgrades.
“Another mandate without funding,” said Tesilia Soliz, Northside Independent School District director of transportation. “It’s an overwhelming, daunting request because our fleet is so large.”
Soliz agrees with the need for safety enhancements, but said the difficulty lies in the feasibility of retrofitting hundreds of buses and funding the project by September 2029.
Bill Harrison, Northeast ISD executive director of transportation, echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s definitely needed because it’s all about safety to me,” Harrison. “This is stemming off of two years ago, a tragic accident up in Hayes County where a young child was killed when the bus rolled over.”
The author and sponsor’s statement of intent to push SB 546 forward reflects on the deadly 2024 crash.
“In March 2024, a fatal motor vehicle accident involving a Hays CISD school bus and concrete pump truck resulted in the deaths of Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a pre-K student on the school bus, and Ryan Wallace, a doctoral student at The University of Texas, prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB),” the statement reads in part.
While the districts have until September 2029 to finalize changes to all buses to ensure compliance, districts are required to submit their budget limitations to the Texas Education Agency no later than May 29, 2025.
“As part of the required estimated cost reporting, school systems will be able to participate in a grant opportunity related to seat belt installation‚" TEA wrote on its website.
The San Antonio Independent School District estimates it will need $15 million for the upgrades; the North East Independent School District estimates needing $19 million; and Northside ISD estimates needing $52 million.
All three districts are also planning to purchase new buses to offset the issue of older buses unable to be upgraded to have three-point seatbelts, and some buses aging out of the district’s safe timeline for owning and operating a school bus.
On average, a single school bus with three-point seatbelts can cost between $160,000 and $185,000, according to NISD, NEISD, and SAISD.
However, the TEA has not allocated a clear amount of grant funding toward alleviating the financial burden of the seatbelt updates.
“Details regarding grant opportunities are currently in development,” the Texas Education Agency told KSAT in an email.
In the meantime, school districts are finalizing their submissions to their school board and the TEA before May 29.
Districts in San Antonio, facing financial deficits, are also creating an issue in affording the bus upgrades to new seatbelts as they try to get out of financial issues.
“The district’s in a financial crunch,” Harrison said. “We are in a deficit, have been for a few years. ... It kind of backs us in a corner where we’ve got to put a plan together, it’s basically three and a half years to have all the buses we need to have retrofitted.”
Northside ISD is in a similar situation of a budget deficit.
“We are this year operating at a $38 million budget deficit and projected for an even larger deficit for next year,” Soliz said.
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