STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator KRISTIN M. CORRADO
District 40 (Bergen, Essex and Passaic)
Senator ANTHONY M. BUCCO
District 25 (Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires school buses transporting students with special needs to be equipped with certain safety features.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act requiring certain school buses to be equipped with certain safety features and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Every school bus, as defined in R.S.39:1-1, that transports one or more students with special needs, shall be equipped with:
a. an integrated electronic seat belt alert system, including weight sensors installed in each passenger seat, that detects and alerts the driver, both audibly and visually, if any seat belt is unfastened or improperly fastened while the school bus is in motion; and
b. a system consisting of unique barcodes placed on the interior and exterior of a school bus, as determined by the Commissioner of Education, that shall be scanned by the driver as part of the visual inspection of the school bus at the end of the transportation route to determine that no pupil has been left on the school bus as required pursuant to section 1 of P.L.2007, c.77 (C.18A:39-28).
2. The Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, shall promulgate, pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations concerning the design and installation of integrated electronic seat belt alert systems and unique barcodes required to be installed on school buses that transport one or more students with special needs as required pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the sixth month after enactment, but the Commissioner of Education, in consultation with the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, may take such anticipatory actions as may be necessary for the timely implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that every school bus that transports one or more students with special needs be equipped with: (1) an integrated electronic seat belt alert system that detects and alerts the driver, both audibly and visually, if any seat belt is unfastened or improperly fastened while the school bus is in motion; and (2) a system consisting of unique barcodes placed on the interior and exterior of a school bus which are to be scanned by the driver during a post-trip inspection that verifies that no pupil has been left on the school bus.