Duckworth, Cohen Renew Push to Help Improve School Bus Safety and Protect Our Kids

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST)— and U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) reintroduced legislation to help keep our kids safe as they travel to and from school. TheSchool Bus Safety Act of 2025would implement safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to make school buses safer by ensuring there are seat belts at every seat and buses are equipped with safety measures like stability control and automatic braking systems. The bill would also create a grant program to help school districts modify school buses to meet these important safety modifications.
“No parent should have to worry about the safety of their children when they get on a school bus—but school buses often lack seat belts and other basic safety equipment that every parent demands,”said Senator Duckworth.“Nothing is more important than protecting our children, which is why I’m proud to be reintroducing theSchool Bus Safety Actwith Rep. Cohen to help prevent school bus accidents, make accidents less severe and implement other commonsense safety recommendations that will save lives.”
“There is no more precious cargo than children entrusted by their parents for a bus ride to school,”said Rep. Cohen.“The commonsense measures recommended by the NTSB and called for in this legislation will save young lives. I am pleased to reintroduce this legislation with Senator Duckworth to make school buses across the country safer while helping financially strapped school districts modify their school bus fleets to meet the new specifications. We’ve seen too many deaths and serious injuries in school bus accidents in Tennessee and elsewhere, and it is past time we act to protect young lives.”
TheSchool Bus Safety Actwould require the Department of Transportation issue rules requiring all school buses to include:
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)1,082 people have died in school transportation-related crashes between 2013 and 2022, which saw a total of 976 crashes.
Full text of the legislation can be found onSenator Duckworth’s website.
Duckworth has long pushed for improving school bus safety, originallyintroducingthis legislation in 2018and againin 2023.
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