Authorizes a childhood education surcharge on the personal income tax for cities having a population of one million or more persons

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Jamaal Bailey

Requires lap/shoulder seat belts for every permanent seat on all student buses, DOT-compliant, with statewide rollout by July 1, 2028 (local opt-in earlier; liability protections).

REFERRED TO INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS

Purpose

This bill would amend Massachusetts motor-vehicle law to require that every school bus transporting students to or from public, vocational, private or parochial schools be equipped with lap/shoulder restraint systems (seat belts) for each permanent seating accommodation, installed to meet United States DOT motor-vehicle safety standards. The stated goal is to increase student passenger safety on school buses.

Key provisions

Amends Section 7B of Chapter 90 of the Massachusetts General Laws by adding a new criterion (19) requiring:

Each school bus transporting students to/from school must be equipped with a seat belt for every permanent seating accommodation, designed and installed in compliance with U.S. DOT safety standards.

Local option:

A city or town may adopt a local ordinance or bylaw requiring seat belts on school buses to be effective earlier than the statewide implementation date.

Liability limitation:

The act provides that no claim for damages may arise from the failure of a school bus operator, school, school district, or municipality to ensure that a passenger was wearing the prescribed restraint system under Section 7B.

Effective date:

The act would take effect July 1, 2028, providing multi‑year lead time for procurement/retrofitting and implementation.

Who would be affected

School districts, private and parochial schools that operate or contract for student transportation.

School bus owners/operators and contractors responsible for vehicle acquisition, retrofitting, maintenance, and training.

Bus manufacturers and suppliers (demand for DOT-compliant seat-belt installations).

Municipalities (local option to accelerate requirements) and students/parents (safety changes).

Potential fiscal impacts for districts/municipalities to retrofit existing fleets or to buy new buses that include seat belts.

Timeline and procedural status (as provided)

Filed in Massachusetts Senate: January 16, 2025 (Senate Docket No. 1821 / S.1662).

Hearing scheduled: April 9, 2025 (10:00 AM–12:00 PM).

Referred to committees: listed references include Public Safety and Homeland Security; Investigations and Government Operations; and, in some records, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

Current listed status: REFERRED TO INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS.

Effective date in text: July 1, 2028.

Notes and data inconsistencies

The bill text provided focuses on Massachusetts state law (school-bus seat-belt requirement). Other metadata in the file (an alternate bill title about a “childhood education surcharge,” lists of U.S. Senate sponsors, and references to federal bill numbers) appear inconsistent with the Massachusetts bill text and likely reflect conflated records. This summary is based on the Massachusetts bill text (Senate Docket No. 1821 / S.1662) requiring seat belts on school buses.

Bill