Earlier this year Buffalo Public Schools saw 20 percent of its fleet of 630 school buses equipped with three-point, lap/shoulder belts, and now the district has a policy in place that requires all student riders wear the restraint systems and be trained on proper usage at least three times a year.

A report released by NHTSA over the summer analyzing state and national data found that earlier use of child safety restraints for 3- and 4-year-old children resulted in less risk of injury than when using booster seats.

When it comes to controversy, no topic stands out quite like school bus seat belts. Both NASDPTS and NAPT this year presented information from the recently-released pilot program from Alabama, which resulted from the fatal 2006 Huntsville crash that killed four teenage girls after the school bus in which they were riding plunged 30 feet off of a highway overpass.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published three proposed changes to the October 2008 final rule on seat belts in school buses centering on how the height of occupant torso belts are measured, integrated seat belts for wheelchairs and the self-latching requirement for seat cushions.

Gov. Bob Riley, his appointed study group and officials at the Alabama Department of Education were presented with findings from a three-year school bus seat belt study that found occupant restraint systems are not as cost effective as making improvements to the danger zone while loading and unloading students.