Illegal School Bus Passing Numbers Indicate Decrease, ‘Still Too Many’

July 21, 2026

stop arm, illegal passing — Stock photo.

DENVER, Colo. — Despite a decline in the number of illegal passers, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) said the problem is far from resolved.

In the most recent one-day count of illegal passers, announced Tuesday at the National School Transportation Association Annual Meeting and Convention, NASDPTS Executive Director Ronna Weber said 101,334 participating school bus drivers, accounting for 26.2 percent of the nation’s school bus drivers throughout 39 states and the District of Columbia, reported that 56,024 vehicles passed their buses illegally on a single day during the 2025-2026 school year.

Adjusting for 100 percent of the school bus drivers in the U.S., NASDPTS extrapolated just over 213,800 illegal passings each day. Projected across a 180-day school year, the agency noted that these sample results point to more than 38.4 million violations per year among the motoring public.

“As the projected violations for the 2024-2025 school year were 39.3 million, and the projected violations for the 2023-2024 school year were 45.2 million violations, we are noticing a trend in the reduction of the number of illegal passings,” NASDPTS said via a press release. “The problem of illegal passings, however, is far from resolved.”

NASDPTS President Mike Stier of the Illinois State Board of Education noted that while the state directors are pleased to see another reduction in the number of illegal passings, “38.4 million illegal passings is still entirely too many.”

He added that NASDPTS “continues to encourage each state to raise awareness on this important safety issue and to do everything possible to ensure motorists put the safety of school children first.”

Illegal Passing Survey Indicates Latest Violation Trends

When looking at the data, on average, the survey recorded about one violation for every two bus drivers participating in the voluntary survey. Afternoon routes accounted for the largest share of violations, with 28,596 illegal passes reported, representing 51 percent of the total. Morning routes accounted for 25,707 violations, or nearly 46 percent. Midday routes represented just over 3 percent with 1,721 incidents.

Most violations involved motorists approaching from the opposite direction. Plus, nearly 64 percent of illegal passes occurred from the front of the school bus, compared with about 36 percent from the rear.

Florida reported the highest overall number of violations, followed by California, Georgia and Texas. Together, those four states accounted for roughly 60 percent of all reported incidents. However, state-by-state comparisons should be viewed cautiously because participation levels varied and the survey did not account for route mileage, traffic volume, number of stops or roadway type.

The 11th annual survey began in 2014 and since has only missed 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 and the resulting school closures across the country.

“In recent years, several states have increased penalties for violations, authorized the use of photo evidence for issuing citations, or enacted other measures designed to deter this dangerous practice,” NASDPTS said.

At STN EXPO West last week, Michael Hout, Ph.D., the associate dean for research at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, delivered a comprehensive scientific perspective on the persistent problem of illegal school bus stop arm passing. Collaborating with Ward Leber and the Child Safety Network, Hout drew on his expertise in psychology and kinesiology, focusing on visual attention, perception, memory, decision making, and the phenomenon of “look but fail to see errors.”

During his session he emphasized the limitations of violation counts, advocating for more comprehensive data that include legal stops, routes, communities, time of day, and baseline denominators. He referenced the NASDPTS one-day survey, noting that while it’s a start, it’s not a full representation of the problem. Because drivers are counting these instances themselves, he added, there is a margin of error.

He recommended supplementing human observation with video cameras and other assistive tools. Behaviors such as reaction times, fixations, braking, steering, and eye movement control are where recording errors can occur, he noted.