Introduced last month, the bipartisan Brake for Kids Act hopes to create a public service announcement on the dangers of illegally passing a stopped school bus.
Introduced on Sept. 16 by Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and Gary Peters of Michigan, it directs the “Secretary of Transportation to carry out a national public safety messaging campaign relating to the dangers of illegal passing of stopped school buses, and for other purposes.”
The PSA campaign would need to be released and distributed no later than one year after the enactment. It would include television advertisements on national broadcasts as well as radio, social media and other messaging.
Both senators have been involved in trying to prevent illegal school bus crossings, introducing the Stop for School Buses Act in 2019 and 2021.
“Every school year, far too many illegal school bus passings occur, which puts the lives of students at risk. Our bill will raise awareness about the dangers of passing a stopped school bus to help ensure that our kids make it to and from school safely,” said Young in a press release.
U.S. Reps. Rudy Yakym, Pete Stauber, Seth Moulton and Julia Brownley introduced companion legislation in the House.
“Parents need to know their kids are safe taking the bus to and from school,” Peters said in a release. “That’s why I’m proud to help lead this bipartisan, commonsense legislation to raise awareness of the dangers of illegally passing school buses and promote best practices for making our communities safer.”
Meanwhile, the National School Transportation Association released a statement applauding the introduction of the legislation. “The Brake for Kids Act is an essential step to help protect students and alleviate preventable tragedies,” said Patrick Dean, NSTA president. “Illegal school bus passings are a national crisis, and this legislation provides a platform for student transportation to raise awareness, change behavior, and prevent these all-too-frequent incidents.”
NSTA cited the 2025 National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services survey released this summer, noting that more than 114,000 school bus drivers across the U.S. reported 67,258 violations in a single day. While lower than in years past, NASDPTS extrapolated that motorists nationwide still illegally pass school buses tens of millions of times during the school year.
“NSTA believes that a nationwide safety campaign will close knowledge gaps, strengthen driver education, and save lives,” the press release adds.
A PFAS advisory sign along Starkweather Creek. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
More than two years after $125 million was set aside in the 2023-25 state budget to fund the remediation of PFAS contamination across Wisconsin, legislators are again trying to pass two bills to get that money out the door.
At a Senate public hearing Tuesday, the bills’ Republican authors said they’re “all ears” for reaching a compromise on final language. However in the last legislative session, initial hopes that a deal could be reached went unfulfilled after Republicans, Democrats, business groups and environmental organizations dug into their positions and the bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers.
As was the case in the last effort, the dispute is over who and how the state will hold entities responsible for PFAS contamination.
PFAS are a class of man-made chemical compounds commonly known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down easily in the environment. The chemicals, which were used for decades in goods such as non-stick pans, fast food wrappers and firefighting foams, have been connected to causing cancer, thyroid diseases and developmental problems. CommunitiesacrossWisconsinhavefoundPFAScontamination in their water supplies.
Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto), one of the bills’ co-authors, said at the Tuesday hearing he’s trying to make sure people don’t have to choose between “their health and financial ruin” by testing for contamination and potentially being held responsible for paying for the clean up under the state’s spills law — which allows the Department of Natural Resources to force “responsible parties” to pay for the testing and remediation of chemical contamination.
“We are transitioning from a medical and legal paradigm where a widely used substance was not considered hazardous, to a paradigm where it is considered hazardous, it’s imperative we don’t sweep up those who are not responsible and treat them as though they are,” he said.
Wimberger and Rep. Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz) have proposed Senate Bills 127 and 128, which establish the exemptions under which people won’t be held responsible for PFAS contamination on their property and create a number of grant programs to spend the $125 million.
The challenge is that Republicans and industry have different definitions of who counts as responsible for contamination than Democrats and environmental groups. Constructing exemptions to the spills law that are too narrow could result in people being forced to pay for remediation they didn’t cause. But writing the exemptions too broadly could result in polluters passing the cost of remediation on to taxpayers.
Across the state, municipal wastewater treatment utilities sell or give away the byproducts of their plants to use as fertilizer on farm fields. The DNR grants permits to allow the spreading of these byproducts, known as biosolids, which for years was seen as an environmentally responsible source of fertilizer because it was recycled. However biosolids from places with PFAS contamination in the water are contaminated, which can pollute the water near the field where they’re spread.
Wimberger wants to make sure these farmers aren’t on the hook with the DNR to pay for contamination they didn’t know was happening and the DNR gave them a permit to create.
But environmental advocates don’t want the exemptions to be so vague that they’re available to entities such as paper mills or chemical manufacturers.
“We’re just asking you to understand that the way that you word an exemption is going to matter,” Christine Sieger, director of the DNR’s remediation and redevelopment bureau, said in her testimony. “I implement the spill law all day, every day, and I can tell you, people are crafty when it comes to getting out of liability. They will come up with all sorts of ways for how they can get themselves off the hook. And I just, I don’t want you to help them do that. Let’s make sure that they can take care of our people and clean up the mess that they’ve made.”
After the proposed PFAS bill was vetoed by Evers last session, Wimberger complained that opponents raised concerns about the exemptions being too broadly worded without naming specifics. On Tuesday, he said people objected with “platitudes” rather than specific language that could be corrected and that he hoped opponents could be more constructive this time around.
Erik Kanter, director of government relations for Clean Wisconsin, said Tuesday the organization couldn’t support the proposal without amendments, proposing specific line-by-line changes for the bill authors to make.
Kanter pointed to a line in SB 128 that states “a person that spreads biosolids or wastewater residuals contaminated by PFAS in compliance with any applicable license or permit” is exempt from being held responsible for PFAS contamination under the spills law. However, he said, that line is so vaguely worded that an industrial manufacturer could purchase and spread biosolids on its property as a way to gain an exemption from being held responsible for contamination it caused by creating PFAS as a byproduct of manufacturing.
“The Legislature created the PFAS trust fund 29 months ago,” Kanter said. “Marinette, Peshtigo, the Town of Campbell, the town of Stella and communities and individuals throughout the state have waited and waited and waited for state government to create the programs through which the PFAS trust fund can be allocated. They don’t deserve to wait another day. They don’t deserve a bill that doesn’t meet their needs or lets polluters off the hook and saddles taxpayers with the bill. We believe that compromise is possible and essential. We value the bill authors’ partnership to find compromise on this bill. Clean Wisconsin shares their goal in getting a bill to the governor’s desk for his signature this session, and we will continue working in good faith toward that end.”
Both Mursau and Wimberger expressed hope that they could write an amendment that would get enough support to be signed into law.
“It’s my intention to take the feedback here … and bring forward the amendment that can earn the support of the Legislature to be signed into law by the governor,” Mursau said. “I also want to take this opportunity to thank the groups and individuals who have come to us, not just with criticisms, but with constructive ideas. Those who are willing to engage in dialogue, not just opposition, have been instrumental in helping us shape the legislation that can actually pass and deliver results. In a divided government like ours, meaningful progress requires compromise. I’m grateful for those who recognize that and continue to work with us in good faith.”
Leander Independent School District in Texas is updating its seatbelt policy to require its school bus drivers to check for students buckled up before departure in response to a school bus rollover crash last month.
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services confirmed a school bus rollover involving Leander Independent School District occurred Aug. 13 at 3:15 p.m. The school bus, which primarily transports students to and from Bagdad Elementary School, was transporting 42 children home from the first day of classes. Eleven students and the school bus driver were transported to the hospital with injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board announced the day following the crash that it is coordinating with the Texas Department of Public Safety on a safety investigation.
Monica de la Garza-Conness, Bagdad Elementary principal and Tracie Franco, the district’s transportation services director, shared in an Aug. 26 letter to parents that while DPS found no criminal wrongdoing by school bus driver Tim Gall, he was “cited for failure to drive in a single lane and improper use of a seatbelt.”
According to the letter, he is no longer employed by the district. Leander ISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing said Gall was a “seasoned veteran bus driver.”
Texas Senate Bill 546 introduced in 2024 and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025, went into effect Sept. 1. The law states that by the end of the current school year, the board of trustees at school districts must submit a report to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).that includes the number of school buses operated by or contracted for us by the school district that are not equipped with seatbelts. The report must also list the buses equipped with lap belts and equipped with lap/shoulder belts. School boards must also provide the estimated cost to equip three-point belts in each school bus used by the district.
By Jan. 1, 2027, TEA will collect the information and calculate the total amount of financial assistance needed for all school districts to equip with their school buses with lap/shoulder belts. TEA will make that information available and a school district mau accept “gifts, grants and donations from any public or private source to implement” lap/shoulder seatbelts.
The 2024 Blue Bird school bus was equipped with lap/shoulder seatbelts, per state law. The state requires model-year 2018 or newer school buses to be equipped with the three-point seatbelts. School districts can opt out if the school board determines that the cost exceeds the district’s budget and passes a vote during a public meeting.
Local news reports noted the DPS concluded some but not all students were wearing the safety restraints. State law says students are required to wear the lap/shoulder seatbelts if the school bus is equipped with them.
Garza-Conness and Franco addressed safety items from the DPS. They noted that voter approval of a 2023 bond resulted in every school bus running daily routes, including for students with individualized education programs, are equipped with seatbelts. An additional 44 school buses used for field trips and substitute buses are also equipped with seatbelts.
“Only if all of these are in use would an older bus without seatbelts be assigned,” the letter states.
“The report also reinforced the importance of consistent seatbelt use, a point of emphasis for us,” the letter continues. “We remain committed to reviewing our practices and strengthening reminders about seatbelt use to ensure the well-being of every child we transport. While state law does not hold districts legally responsible for seatbelt use, we expect students to buckle up whenever seatbelts are available. To strengthen this standard, drivers will now check seatbelt use before departure. These expectations for our staff members will be added to our transportation and district handbooks.”
The letter addressed a comment from DPS on tire tread depth, which was reportedly within acceptable safety standards.
Garza-Conness and Franco asked parents to help share the message and importance of wearing a seatbelt. “Please remind your child to buckle up every time they ride the bus—it’s one of the simplest ways to stay safe,” the joint letter notes. “Your partnership reinforces the same message our drivers and schools are sharing daily, helping us build strong habits together.”
Nevada became the 26th state to authorize school districts to install and use school bus stop-arm cameras.
Assembly Bill 527, which passed June 6 and went into effect on July 1, allows school districts to install the cameras and for law enforcement to use evidence of illegal passing to issue citations to the vehicle’s registered owner. Fines collected are used to fund the installation, maintenance and operation of the camera systems as well as pay the vendor to install, operate or maintain the systems.
School districts that choose to vieo cameras must conduct a public awareness campaign regarding the use of cameras and notify the public on when enforcement starts.
While school district leaders applaud the law, local police departments are questioning if they have adequate staffing to handle review video and issue citations, as noted in a local news article.
The law also addresses privacy concerns by requiring school districts and police departments to delete images of vehicles after 90 days.
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