The National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) announced Minakshi Chilagani, a student at River Trail Middle School in Johns Creek, Georgia, is the overall national winner of the 2024–2025 National School Bus Safety Poster Contest.

The poster contest, organized annually by NAPT, is a long-standing tradition that encourages students to engage creatively with school bus safety messaging. It not only promotes awareness but empowers students to become ambassadors for safe school transportation in their communities.

Chilagani’s detailed artwork was chosen from student entries across the country in five different grade groups. Her poster will be featured nationwide during National School Bus Safety Week, happening Oct. 20–24, 2025. This year’s theme, “Safety First – Safety Always,” really comes through in her creative take on how to stay safe both on the bus and around it.

The winning poster was praised for illustrating core safety messages such as the importance of situational awareness, listening to the school bus driver, lining up properly while awaiting to board, staying seated during the ride, and avoiding the “most dangerous danger zone” around the bus.

In addition to NAPT, the panel of judges included the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, and the National School Transportation Association. Each entry was evaluated based on safety impact, originality, artistic quality, and visual effectiveness.

Other students from across the country were also recognized as divisional winners in their respective grade categories. Among the younger divisions, Skylar Roque from Smyrna Elementary in Georgia took first place for grades K–2. Harshini Lingam Muhilan from Unity Charter School in Morristown, New Jersey, won first place in grades 3–5. Chilagani also placed first in her own category, grades 6–8. In the Special Education division, first place went to Jace Reeves from Feagin Mill Middle School in Warner Robins, Georgia. Emma Machiski from Shenendehowa Central School District in Clifton Park, New York, won first place in the Computer-Aided Drawing division.

Looking ahead, the theme for the 2025–2026 contest will be “Safe Rides, Everyday Heroes.” Students may begin submitting entries between Nov. 2, 2025, and April 3, 2026. Full contest rules and submission information are available here.

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The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) says 39.3 million motorists could be illegally passing school buses nationwide, after updating its National Stop Arm Count survey to correct data reported by California.  

The California Department of Education provided new figures to NASDPTS to correct the number of driver-side and student loading-door-side illegal passes by motorists at school bus stops. As a result, NASDPTS extrapolated a decrease in the number of potential violations based on a 180-day school year and nationwide, further indicating that while still a major issue illegal passing rates improved during the 2024-2025 school year.

NASDPTS announced its 13th National Stop Arm Violation Count, a one-day snapshot of motorists illegally passing stopped school buses while loading or unloading students during the 2024-2025 school year, at National School Transportation Association Annual Meeting and Convention Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier this year, California joined 35 other states and the District of Columbia in voluntary one-day counts of motorists passing the federally mandated stop arm and flashing red lights at school bus stops while children are loading or unloading.

Initially, the NASDPTS report indicated that the 1,943 participating school bus drivers in California — accounting for approximately 8 percent of the 21,668 school buses in operation each school day, according to the California Department of Education’s Office of School Transportation — observed 10,381 violations, and that all occurred on the right-side of the school buses where students load and exit.

California clarified Thursday that a total of 8,231 violations of the school bus stop arm and red lights were reported, with 3,881 occurring from the front of the bus and 4,350 from the rear. None occurred on the right side where the loading door is located, Anna Borges, supervisor the Office of Student Transportation, told School Transportation News.

California is also the only state to require all kindergarten through eighth grade students be escorted by their drivers, when the students must cross the street to and from the school bus to get to or from their homes. In these instances, the Office of Student Transportation clarified that 136 illegal passes were observed, where the motorist or motorist approached the school bus from the front or as oncoming traffic, during afternoon routes. Fifty-nine motorists passed during morning routes and dight during mid-day routes. Motorists passed from the rear of the school bus during escorted routes 104 times in the afternoon, 32 times in the morning, and 10 times at mid-day.

Illegal passes spiked on non-escorted routes, a total of 7,882 instances, or nearly 96 percent of the total observations. This included students who don’t need to cross the street and students in grades 9 through 12.

A total of 1,711 school buses operated by 149 of the California’s 950 school districts that provide home-to-school transportation and 11 private carriers participated in the April 29 count. 

With the correction, NASPDTS said 218,000 illegal passing incidents  report indicates 114,471 school bus drivers, or 31 percent of the nation’s total, reported a total of 69,408 vehicles passed their buses illegally. Adjusting to account for 100 percent all school bus drivers in the U.S., NASDPTS said over 218,000 illegal passing violations could occur on one day, a decrease of 7,000 based on the initial sample previously reported. NASDTPS also extrapolates 1.3 million fewer incidents could occur during a 180-day school year across all 50 states, 39.3 million compared to the original estimate of 40.6 million. While still high, the new figure represents 13-percent fewer illegal passes than the 45.2 million reported for the 2023-2024 school year.

“Even with these corrected numbers the illegal passing of stopped school buses continues to be the greatest safety danger to children,” said NASDPTS President Mike Stier. ”Regardless of the number, 39.3 million violations is simply too many. We continue to encourage each state to raise awareness on this important safety issue and to do everything possible to ensure motorists put the safety of school children first.”

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts nationwide saw the number of illegal passings spike. NASDPTS had previously cited 41.8 million violations occurring using data from the 2019 and 2022 surveys, as the survey was suspended for two years during the height of COVID, when schools nationwide closed their doors and few school buses were on route. The survey returned in 2022.

Meanwhile, the most recent survey indicated 80 percent of the reported illegal passes occurred on the left side of the stopped school bus. More notably, that left almost 20 occurring on the right side of the bus, where the loading doors are located and where students enter and exit.

According to the NASDPTS update, over 50 percent of the observed illegal passes, 33,914 instances, occurred during afternoon routes. About 46 percent, or 31,127 violations, occurred in the morning and 2,217 violations, over 3 percent, occurred during midday routes. Sixty-nine percent of the observed violations, 39,442, were committed by motorists in oncoming vehicles as opposed to 22,203 vehicles, 36 percent, following from the rear.

Georgia led the way with the most school bus drivers participating in the one-day count at 13,468 followed by Tennessee with 11,811 and North Carolina with 10,597.

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Despite not meeting since 2015 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Congress on School Transportation in Des Moines, Iowa last month concluded one half day ahead of schedule.

The early finish was noted by steering committee chair Michael LaRocco, state director student transportation services for the Indiana Department of Education, and on-site chair Charlie Hood, a former NASDPTS president and retired state director for Florida, who attributed the expedited conclusion to the understood importance of the process.

As a first-time attendee—like many in the room—the organized structure of the proceedings was apparent. Like a well-oiled machine, each committee took the stage and presented the proposed changes, with delegates agreeing quickly, or putting up a fight on something as seemingly simple as a word choice.

Much of the debate occurred over three words: May, Should and Shall. But those are important delineations, I learned.

Shall is the most stringent, a legal obligation. May connotates allowable equipment or processes. Should is a recommendation. I questioned why the wording matters, especially if the book itself is intended to serve as a best-practice resource and not a requirement in many states. It all comes down to legalities.

For instance, say a school district doesn’t equip its school buses with crossing arms and a student gets hurt, when a crossing arm could have prevented the injury. The specifications manual could be used in court, and the district would have to defend the decision of not equipping vehicles with the available safety device.

Despite no delegates speaking on the crossing gates proposal, it passed in one of the most controversial votes, 34 to 13, changing “may” have to “shall” have.

Word choice remained important to the delegations and was a sticking point for most amended changes. Whether that word choice was changing school district to local education agency, using the word student versus child, or removing the word privilege when referring to school transportation. One Michigan delegate argued the service should no longer be a privilege but a right, especially when a student’s on-board behavior is an issue.

One delegate even noted at the start of the Congress that using the word shall could be subjective language and called upon the states to use the term must as universal language when referring to requirements throughout the entire specs manual.

“Must is a directive,” the Michigan delegate shared. However, Hood reminded delegates that rules were already accepted and such changes could not be made at that time.

Proposal 50 of the school bus specifications committee was one of the few that was granted extra time for discussion (each proposal is allocated a total of 15 minutes) due to wording relating to mitigating a child being left on a school bus and preemptive procedures for the driver to take. The proposal stated that passenger advisory systems are optional but if installed, “a passenger advisory system shall require the driver to walk through the bus looking for sleeping children before leaving the bus. The driver shall have to push a button at the rear of the bus to deactivate the alarm. If the driver tries to leave the bus without deactivating the system, the system shall cause the horn to sound, notifying others that the bus is still occupied.”

The proposal added a description for how the passenger advisory system works. Delegates, however, found that the language was too specific to a procedure or system. It was amended to remove the description, as delegates pointed out some systems don’t use a button. Instead, the proposal was updated to state that the driver shall walk the bus aisle, look for sleeping children, and proceed to the rear of the bus to deactivate the system.

Another proposal in the specially equipped school bus specifications committee discussed the use of air conditioning. The proposal stated, “Climate control options shall be installed that include heating and air conditioning.” However, delegates voted 37 to 7 that changing shall to may was more appropriate to address the various climates across the U.S.

2025 New Committees
New this year was the addition of the emerging technologies and alternative transportation committees as well as the separation of infants, toddlers and preschoolers from transportation for students with disabilities and health care needs. The emerging technologies committees proceeded quickly, with one Maryland delegate questioning the need for inserting language into the specs manual as opposed to creating a guide that can be updated more regularly for school districts.

“What’s new today is old tomorrow,” a delegate commented. Alternative transportation was an especially hot topic. Many agreed that it was necessary to discuss but in little detail, leaving most governing to state and local decision makers. For instance, a line item for driver credentials stated that alternative transportation drivers “be at least 18 years of age or commensurate with the state’s required age and required years of driving to become a school bus driver.” The delegates felt the age was not necessary and should be removed, leaving the decision to the state.

One delegate suggested a policy consideration for not allowing students to be transported in the front seat of alternative transportation vehicles under any circumstances. However, other delegates had concerns, stating that a 10-passenger van would be limited to nine passengers. A Kentucky delegate said their school district allows high school students to sit in the front when space is limited. The proposed amendment failed by a vote of 31 to 9.

The delegates voted to remove the types of alternative transportation driver training (12 bullet points ranging from defensive driving to operations in inclement weather to safe loading and unloading) to instead comply with federal, state and local requirements.

After two days of the delegates sharing their opinions, presenting amendments and approving proposals (or not), the 17th NCST concluded with the resolutions committee. Resolution 2 states that “School Transportation News in a March 2024 publication identified a reporting issue that indicates the school bus is disappearing.”

STN Editor-in-Chief Ryan Gray’s column “The Disappearing School Bus?” highlighted a discrepancy between historically reported numbers of students who ride the school and those of the National Household Travel Survey sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration.

The resolution noted the need to develop a standardized reporting system for collecting ridership data and called on “the interim Steering Committee of the 18th NCST to appoint a focus group to research and develop recommendations for standardization of data collection relative to ridership on school bus and make periodic reports to the Interim Committee.”

The 2024 National Household Travel Survey is currently about halfway through data collection, which will run through Oct. 31 of this year. Meanwhile, the dates and location of the 18th NCST were not announced. State delegates were surveyed about if they felt meeting every five years was appropriate, or if they would rather meet every two or three years. The results were not available at this writing.

Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the June 2025 issue of School Transportation News.

Related: NASDPTS Publishes Paper Espousing Safety of School Buses Over Alternative Transportation
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