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DMV outlines school bus instructor standards, endorsement rules and safety tools including seat-belt and camera options
Summary
DMV officials described certification requirements for school-bus clinic instructors, the state's unique endorsement for non‑CDL school-bus drivers, and discussed seat-belt mandates and red‑light camera enforcement options used in other jurisdictions.
Pat, the DMV Education Unit supervisor, briefed the House Transportation Committee on the agency’s school-bus training, certification and safety initiatives, including instructor qualifications, a state school‑bus endorsement for non‑CDL vehicles and national data the DMV uses for safety assessments.
"The administration of school bus program is overseen by me. It has 23 certified school bus clinic instructors," Pat said, describing the clinic-instructor model used for statewide training. He told the panel that certified clinic instructors are not DMV employees; to qualify they must hold a Class B CDL with passenger and school-bus endorsements and have approximately ten years’ experience driving school buses before certification as a clinic instructor.
Why it matters: School-bus operators transport children daily and state rules govern who may drive different types of vehicles, what training is required, and what safety equipment must be used. DMV officials said the state requires a specific Type-2 school-bus endorsement on a regular operator license for small non‑CDL school buses — a requirement Pat said Vermont uniquely enforces compared with most other states.
Training and endorsement mechanics
Pat described the clinic: an eight-hour course with both classroom and in-bus activities; attendees must complete the full clinic to receive credit. For Type-2 non‑CDL school-bus drivers, applicants must pass a state written exam and a driving test that includes passenger pickup/drop-off and railroad-crossing scenarios to earn the endorsement. Clinic instructors are observed and must co-teach five clinics before being signed off; DMV performs audits and can decertify instructors for serious incidents.
Seat belts, camera enforcement and safety data
Pat discussed the debate over seat belts on school buses and cited California’s experience as part of that discussion: "One of the things they found was their single vehicle school bus crashes went down since they initiated the seatbelt law," he said. He noted there are currently eight states that require seat belts on school buses and that districts differ on whether they enforce wearing.
On enforcement, Pat described red‑light camera options used in some jurisdictions and a Montgomery County, Maryland, program that installed bus cameras and pursued images with investigations that could attach points and higher fines to identified drivers; in some models the vendor shares fees with local agencies. He said the DMV collects and participates in national surveys of driver behaviors around buses and that the agency can supply the committee with that data.
Ending
Pat closed by offering to provide the committee further data from national surveys and the supplemental material behind the state’s safety assessments; he said the DMV will continue auditing clinics and evaluating recommendations from national experts.
