2025 is flying by, which means National School Bus Safety Week is just around the corner. Annually held during the third week of October, National School Bus Safety Week brings together school districts, public safety officials, and others to highlight the ever-growing importance of school bus safety.

This year, National School Bus Safety Week runs Oct. 20-24, 2025, and is united under the theme: Safe Stops. Stronger Communities.

School Bus Fleet has gathered tools to help you prepare a social safety campaign with your transportation department and school district for annual safety week.

Teaching Safe Habits On and Around the School Bus

As school transportation leaders, you know that school buses are the most heavily regulated vehicles on the road, making them among the "safest passenger vehicles in preventing crashes and injuries," according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That said, accidents still happen, with the most dangerous part of riding a school bus being the loading and unloading zones. This annual safety week, consider the following resources to share with students, or create flyers with safety tips for parents/guardians to go over with their children.

NHTSA encourages the SAFE method:

• Stay at least 10 ft. — or five giant steps — away from the curb.
• Always wait until the bus comes to a complete stop and the bus driver signals for you to board.
• Face forward after finding a seat on the bus.
• Exit the bus after it stops and look left-right-left for cars before crossing a street.

Don't forget — additional safety methods should be shared for bicyclists, pedestrians, and car riders. Just because a student isn't on the bus doesn't mean they aren't near a loading zone as they arrive and depart from school.

Best-practice safety methods are also necessary for other motorists on the road, as the National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) and National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDTPS) estimate, 39.3 million illegal stop-arm violations were recorded in 2024–2025 across the U.S., down from 45.2 million the previous year.

Although state laws may differ on when it is or isn't safe to pass a stopped school bus, passing while the red lights are flashing is generally illegal in all 50 states. Learn more from NHTSA.

What else can you do this week? Share the message, advocate, and educate others! NCSR offers downloadable graphics to help spread the word.

Industry Resources Supporting School Bus Safety

Across the industry, organizations and vendors are rolling out new tools, campaigns, and educational initiatives to strengthen school bus safety. From awareness programs to hands-on training, these resources help fleets, drivers, and communities stay informed and proactive.

Verra Mobility Continues National School Bus Safety Initiative

Verra Mobility is highlighting illegal school bus passings and providing a toolkit promoting safe school transportation to communities nationwide.

The free resource includes social media posts, digital collateral, educational messaging, and statistics to raise awareness about the importance of safe driving behavior around school buses. 

Beyond awareness campaigns, Verra Mobility's school bus stop arm program uses AI-powered cameras to automatically detect vehicles that illegally pass a stopped bus. Any vehicle that illegally passes the bus is recorded on video, capturing the license plate and the extended stop arm. 

Verra Mobility reports a 98% reduction in repeat violations, and some programs see a 70% decrease in citations issued over the course of a school year. 

NASDPTS Supports Shared Responsibility Among Drivers

This year, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS) sponsored a video campaign featuring RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece who proclaimed, “even professional drivers stop for school bus.”

Additional National School Bus Safety Week resources can be found here. 

NYAPT and Partners Urge Drivers to Stop for School Buses

The New York Association for Pupil Transportation (NYAPT) is calling on all drivers to stop for school buses when red lights are flashing as part of Operation Safe Stop Day, taking place Wednesday, October 22.

Under New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, drivers must come to a complete stop when approaching a stopped school bus with flashing red lights — whether traveling in the same or opposite direction, even on multi-lane or divided highways.

Operation Safe Stop is a statewide education and enforcement initiative that promotes school bus safety and raises awareness about the dangers of illegally passing stopped school buses.

“Stop on red, our kids are ahead – that’s the Operation Safe Stop motto,” said David Christopher, Executive Director of NYAPT. “Operation Safe Stop is an annual reminder to motorists to be aware of school buses as they travel the highways transporting our nation’s most precious cargo."

NAPT Highlights Poster Contest as Core of Safety Week

For the National Association of Pupil Transportation (NAPT), the centerpiece of National School Bus Safety Week is its poster contest.

According to NAPT, the poster contest has thousands of school districts in over 40 states participating in local and state-level competitions to select artwork depicting school bus safety themes and promoting school bus safety. Although they are separate events, the poster theme becomes the theme for the following year's National School Bus Safety Week.

Want to get a head start? The 2025-26 National School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest theme: Safe Rides, Everyday Heroes. The creation period runs from Nov. 2 to April 3, 2026.

Past and present poster contest winners can be found here.

Bendix Offers Free Safety Tech Training Resources for Fleets

As school bus safety systems grow more sophisticated and policies evolve, keeping drivers and technicians informed and prepared is paramount, according to Bendix.

Bendix supports fleets and drivers through hands-on demonstrations, continuous education, and a variety of resources designed to sharpen skills and deepen understanding of how these technologies work in real-world conditions.

Resources include the Bendix YouTube channel and the brake-school.com training portal (offering no-charge access to a wide range of technical courses).

Best of School Bus Fleet: Top Safety Highlights

From emergency response to emerging technologies, these stories spotlight the people, tools, and strategies keeping students safe every day. Explore some of School Bus Fleet's top safety features and insights from across the industry.

• When Seconds Save Lives: Active Threat Response & The School Bus [Video]
• Traffic Control & School Bus Stops: 9 Keys to Keeping Students Safe
• Beyond the Dash: Safety Tech Helping Drivers See It All
• The Illegal Passing Problem: Reducing School Bus Stop-Arm Violations
• What To Do When Natural Disaster Strikes: Tips & Stories from School Transportation Teams
• When Seconds Save Lives: Active Threat Response & The School Bus [Video]
• From Minor Injuries to Major Events: Building a School Bus Medical Response Plan
• 2025 School Bus Driver Hero: Jackie Wilkerson Brown
• 5 Questions: NTSB's Meg Sweeney on School Bus Safety