Still Not Stopping: New 2025 Data Shows Over 39.3 Million Illegal School Bus Passings

by | Aug 26, 2025 | Industry Leaders, News

Children rush across the street as a car illegally passes a stopped school bus.

STILL NOT STOPPING: NEW 2025 DATA SHOWS OVER 39.3 MILLION ILLEGAL SCHOOL BUS PASSINGS

Every school day, thousands of drivers across the U.S. fail to stop for school buses, putting children’s lives at risk. Despite national awareness campaigns and stronger enforcement, the numbers remain far from zero.

What’s Driving the Decrease?

On a single day during the 2024–2025 school year, 114,239 school bus drivers across 36 states and Washington, D.C. reported 67,258 illegal passings. After adjusting for all school bus drivers nationwide, this represents about 218,000 violations in one day. Stretched across a 180-day school year, that adds up to more than 39.3 million illegal school bus passings. (NASDPTS 2025)

A Drop from Last Year, But Still Too High

This marks a decrease from the 45.2 million violations recorded during the 2023–2024 school year. While the reduction is encouraging, the numbers remain unacceptably high. Each violation is a potential tragedy. We’re grateful to NASDPTS for collecting and sharing this data to keep focus on the stop-arm violation epidemic.

Visibility: A Critical Safety Solution

The reasons for this year’s reduction aren’t fully clear. Could improved school bus safety measures be a contributing factor?

Five states—North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas—now require illumination of the SCHOOL BUS area and/or the stop signal arm as a minimum specification on new school buses. This reflects a growing recognition within the industry that visibility is critical to improving safety and protecting students.

At First Light, we’ve seen measurable results from districts using our Fully Illuminated Stop Arm™ and Illuminated School Bus Sign™. Both are designed to maximize visibility and ensure motorists recognize the school bus and stop when it matters most.

While we cannot say for certain that illumination alone caused the national reduction, it raises an important question: Could broader adoption of illuminated solutions further reduce illegal passings?

Act Now

The data underscores a reality we cannot ignore: 39 million illegal school bus passings every year is not acceptable. As states and school districts continue adopting new safety measures, proactive solutions like improved visibility may be the key to making every school bus stop safer and protecting every child. Don’t wait for a preventable tragedy to drive change. Act now to make student transportation safer.