Dripping Springs ISD spends $4.4M to improve bus safety

By the numbers

District officials planned to fund buses with the 2023 and 2025 voter-approved bonds. The 2023 bond provided approximately $2 million for bus replacement, and the 2025 bond provided roughly $6 million for transportation, including seat belts and bus replacement.

How we got here

In 2017, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 693, which mandated that any bus manufactured in 2018 or later would require a three-point seat belt. The bill did not require retrofitting, and there were budgetary exemptions.

The Texas Senate passed SB 546 in the 2025 legislative session, which requires all buses in a district’s fleet to be fitted with three-point seat belts, regardless of the model year. Older buses without the proper safety equipment must either be replaced or retrofitted.

School districts must be in compliance with the law by Sept. 1, 2029. To facilitate this, the Texas Education Agency set guidelines, including requirements for reporting the status of buses and the estimated cost.