GLEN BURNIE, Md. — Maryland has boosted efficiency by going electronic with school bus inspections, state officials announced on Thursday.

The Maryland Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) has introduced a new school bus safety inspection system that uses handheld tablets instead of a manual paper-based process. State inspectors use the mobile devices to inspect buses and report results electronically. The system also creates a database that the MVA can use to track all bus inspections.

“Our mission is to provide safe transportation solutions,” MVA Administrator Christine Nizer said. “School bus inspections are critical to ensuring the safety of our children being transported to and from school. This new system allows us to more efficiently monitor the safety of school buses operated on Maryland roadways.”

The state requires each of its roughly 9,000 school buses to be inspected three times a year. After an inspection with a mobile device, the electronically recorded results indicate either that the bus has passed or that it requires a repair order for additional follow-up.

According to the MVA, the efficiency of the new reporting method has reduced the time it takes to complete inspection reports. In the month of May, 1,582 inspections were completed using the new system.

The new Maryland school bus safety inspection system was developed at no cost to the MVA by NIC Inc., a Kansas-based information service provider, through a self-funded digital government services contract with the Maryland Department of Information Technology.