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Ohio House approves School Bus Safety Act, creates $10 million grant program for districts
Summary
The Ohio House passed House Bill 3 to increase penalties for illegally passing stopped school buses, authorize permissive safety upgrades including seat belts and cameras, and appropriate $10 million from lottery profits to a grant fund.
The Ohio House on Monday passed House Bill 3, the School Bus Safety Act, a bill that raises penalties for illegally passing stopped school buses, authorizes a set of 13 recommended safety features for buses and creates a $10 million grant program funded from lottery profits to help school districts install those upgrades.
Sponsor Representative Diane Willis said the bill increases maximum fines, lengthens possible driver license suspensions and imposes stiffer penalties and points for repeat offenders while making safety upgrades permissive for districts. "This is one of those bills that I believe is going to be transformational for the way that our school districts think about school bus safety for our kids," Representative Willis said.
The bill directs the grant program to prioritize features the state task force and working group identified, listing 13 recommended items that districts may choose to adopt; seat belts were the top-ranked feature in the group's recommendations, though Willis said most districts surveyed declined seat belts for their fleets. The bill also permits camera systems that would allow a driver or district to review footage later and provide video evidence to law enforcement under existing evidentiary practices.
Representative Cecil Thomas, a co-sponsor, urged support and highlighted the bill's emphasis on preventing illegal passes of stopped buses and on education: "House Bill 3 is about keeping our children safe," Thomas said. He described the bill's $10,000,000 grant program as a way to help districts install features such as crossing arms, collision-avoidance systems and panic-alert technology.
The bill designates August as School Bus Safety Awareness Month and appropriates the $10 million in lottery profits to a newly created school bus safety fund and grant program to support districts that opt in. Willis said the measure is permissive — districts choose which features to request — and emphasized enforcement and technology as principal tools for reducing unlawful passes.
The House approved the bill by a roll call of 88-0. The measure now moves to the governor for signature and to the grant-administration steps laid out in the bill.
