{"id":893394,"date":"2026-06-26T04:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893394\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T04:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:56:14","slug":"we-could-not-just-pass-another-unfunded-mandate-senator-speaks-on-school-seatbelt-requirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893394\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We could not just pass another unfunded mandate\u2019: Senator speaks on school seatbelt requirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 Texas lawmakers approved a statewide requirement for all public school buses be equipped with three-point seat belts by Sept. 1, 2029. <\/p>\n

The restraint is similar to the seat belt used in most passenger vehicles, but it is not currently standard across many public school bus fleets.<\/p>\n

The mandate comes from Senate Bill 546, authored by State Sen. Jos\u00e9 Men\u00e9ndez. <\/p>\n

KSAT previously spoke with Northside Independent School District\u2019s Director of Transportation Tesilia Soliz and Northeast Independent School District\u2019s Executive Director of Transportation Bill Harrison about the mandate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hopeful that there will be grants available,\u201d Harrison said, \u201cbut there\u2019s no detail about any of that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both NEISD and NISD leaders said their district\u2019s can not afford the state mandated upgrades on the number of buses needed.<\/p>\n

Men\u00e9ndez shared more on plans to get funding for these districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could not just pass another unfunded mandate onto schools just to tell them look, you have to do this and not provide them the resources,\u201d Menendez said.<\/p>\n

However, there are still several outstanding concerns including how many districts need to upgrade their buses, how much the upgrades will cost and enforcing a seat belt implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have put some money, I think $10 million into a grant for schools to apply to have their fleets updated with three-point seat belts,\u201d Menendez said.<\/p>\n

However, that won\u2019t even cover the upgrades at Northeast ISD alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will cost about $13 million if we have to retrofit all those,\u201d Harrison said.<\/p>\n

Texas school districts had to inform the Texas Education Agency the number of buses the district has, the type of seat belts on each of those buses and how much the upgrades would cost by May 29.<\/p>\n

In an email on June 24, TEA said \u201cData submissions are still under review by the agency.\u201d The agency also said it has until January 2027 to report that information.<\/p>\n

School district\u2019s across the state have until Sept. 1, 2029 to retrofit all buses to have three-point seatbelts.<\/p>\n

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