Pupil transportation.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary does not provide specific details about the grant program's funding mechanism beyond it being contingent upon an appropriation.

Changes to School Transportation Rules

This bill changes rules about how long school employees can drive students for field trips, extracurricular activities, or sports events and sets up a grant program to help small schools with transportation safety.

What This Bill Does

• Removes the limit on how many hours a school employee can drive students for field trips, extracurricular activities, or athletic programs.
• Keeps the limit of 40 hours per year for driving students for other reasons but allows smaller and rural schools to have up to 200 hours if needed.
• Creates a grant program to help small and rural schools pay for safety training and inspections related to school transportation.
• Allows certain employees or volunteers in small and rural schools to drive students to events if they meet specific requirements, like having a good driving record and using safe vehicles.

Who It Names or Affects

• School districts that provide student transportation
• Employees who transport students for field trips, extracurricular activities, or sports events
• Small and rural local educational agencies

Terms To Know

Frontier school district

A small school district that is far from other towns or cities.

Average daily attendance

The average number of students present in a school each day over the year.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill only applies to schools with fewer than 2,500 units of average daily attendance or frontier districts.
• Funding for the grant program depends on getting money from the government.

Official Summary Text

AB 2362, as amended, Hadwick.
Pupil transportation.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to provide for the transportation of pupils to and from school whenever, in the judgment of the governing board, the transportation is advisable and good reasons exist to do so. Existing law requires a driver employed by a local educational agency, contracted by a local educational agency, or contracted by any entity with funding from a local educational agency, who provides school-related pupil transportation for compensation to be subject to specified requirements including, among others, having a satisfactory driving record, as provided. Existing law exempts from these requirements a school employee when the employee provides transportation to pupils due to or because of the employee’s supervision of pupils for a field trip, extracurricular activity, or athletic program, or when the employee provides transportation to
pupils for other activities, not to exceed 40 hours of drive time per school year per employee.
This bill
would delete the 40 hours of drive time per school year limit for a school employee that transports pupils due to or because of the employee’s supervision of pupils for a field trip, extracurricular activity, or athletic program. The bill would maintain the 40 hours of drive time per school year limit for a school employee that transports pupils due to or because of the employee’s supervision of pupils for other activities, except that,
would,
for a local educational agency with fewer than 2,500 units of average daily attendance and a frontier school district, as defined,
the bill would
set
that limit at 200 hours of drive
time or such other amount as approved by the governing board or body of the local educational agency.
time instead of 40 hours. The bill would, contingent upon an appropriation, establish the Rural Transportation Safety Grant Program to provide funding to small and rural local educational agencies for costs associated with training, inspections, and compliance with, among other things, the above-described driver requirements.
This bill would authorize a local educational agency with fewer than 2,500 units of average daily attendance or a frontier school district, as defined, to issue a rural activity driver authorization to an employee or registered volunteer who transports pupils in a vehicle with a maximum capacity of 10 or fewer persons, including the driver, to or from curricular or extracurricular events if the employee or registered volunteer
meets specified requirements, including, among others, having a satisfactory driving record and using a vehicle that has undergone an annual safety inspection, as provided. The bill would prohibit an employee or registered volunteer with a rural activity driver authorization from transporting pupils in specified conditions, including when the route exceeds 200 road miles one way. The bill would require a local educational agency that issues a rural activity driver authorization to an employee or registered volunteer to maintain records of all authorizations, inspections, and training requirements.

Current Bill Text

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