Education
BY EMILY LINCKE
New Caney ISD faces $11M cost to meet new Texas school bus seat belt law
New Caney ISD school buses New Caney ISD has 158 buses, with about 40% of them in compliance with Senate Bill 546.
Total buses 158
On May 11, New Caney ISD’s board of trustees opted to request an exemption to a new state law requiring three-point seat belts on school buses that would cost the district almost $11 million to comply with. Current situation Senate Bill 546 requires public school districts to add three-point seat belts to all school buses by Sept. 1, 2029, according to a May 11 presentation from Transportation Director Danny Mealer. NCISD has about 95 buses that would either need to be retrofitted or replaced in order to comply with the new law, which could cost the district: • $3.825 million total —or $30,000-$70,000 per general education bus and $30,000-$45,000 per special education bus—for retrofitting
• $12.45 million total —or $130,000-$175,000 per general education bus and $150,000 per special education bus—to replace buses Mealer proposed a hybrid plan that would cost the district $10.98 million total and would involve phasing out older buses, purchasing 20 new buses per year and retrofitting 11 buses per year, accord- ing to the presentation. “Every year that we wait to initiate a plan ... the cost goes up,” Mealer said. The discussion NCISD trustees unanimously voted to file a peti- tion with the state stating that NCISD can’t afford to meet the seat belt requirements by the deadline. Multiple trustees said that $11 million could fund a lot of teaching positions at NCISD, and the
No seat belts: 83 Three-point seat belts: 63 Two-point seat belts: 12
SOURCE: NEW CANEY ISD/ COMMUNITY IMPACT
money needed to comply with SB 546 would come from the same pot of money as employee salaries. The details SB 546 was enacted in September, Mealer said. The bill was approved during the state’s 2025 legislative session, as previously reported by Community Impact . Mealer said NCISD will receive $3,000 in state funding per bus for the mandate. Next year, the district can apply for grants to earn $45,000 per retired bus under a state program, he added.
10
COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
Powered by FlippingBook