ASSEMBLY, No. 1940
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED MAY 6, 1996
By Assemblywoman TURNER
An Act concerning training requirements for school bus drivers and supplementing chapter 3 of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Except as provided in N.J.S.18A:39-20 for provisional employment, no board of education, private school or contractor shall approve or assign a person as a driver or substitute driver of a school bus who has not successfully completed an approved school bus driver training program within one year of the effective date of this act or within one year of initial employment as a school bus driver after the effective date of this act.
b. The training program, which may be operated by the Department of Education, the driver's employer upon approval of the division, or by a drivers' school licensed by the director pursuant to P.L.1951, c.216 (C.39:12-1 et seq.), shall provide a minimum of 20 hours of course work and behind-the-wheel instruction. The program shall emphasize, but not be limited to, the responsibilities of drivers for the safety of school children, passenger control, defensive driving, accidents and emergencies, emergency driving techniques, first aid, field trips and transporting handicapped children.
c. Guidelines for the training shall be established by the division, in consultation with the Office of Highway Traffic Safety in the Department of Law and Public Safety and the Department of Education. The division shall also establish continuing education requirements for training recertification prior to commercial driver license renewal, which shall include a minimum of 20 hours of refresher course work. The cost of the training shall be borne by the employer of the school bus driver.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fifth month after enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill would require that in addition to the current requirements for becoming licensed as a commercial driver, a person who drives children in a school bus, whether employed by a board of education, a private school, or a contractor, must successfully complete a 20 hour program of classroom and behind-the-wheel instruction. Upon license renewal, the driver must be recertified after completion of an additional 20-hour refresher course.
The training program could be conducted by the State Department of Education, the driver's employer if its course is approved by the Division of Motor Vehicles, or by a licensed private driver education school. The program would be particularly focused on the special responsibilities of school bus drivers for the safety of their passengers. The course would also deal with such skills as passenger control, field trips, and transporting handicapped pupils. Employers would assume the cost of instruction.
This bill addresses concerns about the adequacy of school bus driver preparation expressed after the recent accidental death of a seven-year-old girl while crossing in front of a school bus. According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, five other children have been killed in New Jersey in the last eight years in this manner. There are about 15,000 public school bus drivers in the State.
Requires training for school bus drivers.