ALBANY, N.Y. — On Tuesday, the NAPT reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gave it an update on the agency's forthcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on school bus passenger crash protection.

NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason responded to a letter from NAPT Executive Director Mike Martin, in which he asked her to provide a letter to state legislators and pupil transportation officials informing them of the impending rulemaking.

In her reply, Nason said that the NPRM will be issued this fall.

"Among the issues considered in the NPRM are increasing seat back height and providing performance requirements for voluntarily installed seat belt systems," Nason said. "We do not anticipate requiring seat belts on school buses in this rulemaking."

Nason said that the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register and will give states and other interested parties ample notice of the intended action and its related timelines.

In his letter to Nason, Martin had said that NHTSA had not provided guidance about whether or how the safety of children riding in school buses could be improved further, and as a result, some states have acted on their own to require either lap or lap-shoulder belts onboard school buses.