Minimum age to ride big yellow school bus unrestrained?

Athena · Aug 18, 2011

What is the minimum age to safely ride a big yellow school bus?
(fairly sure it is the old fashioned public school type, without restraints)

They will be offering bus rides at our new student school event. The incoming students will all be 5 and older (or within a few days of turning 5), but there will be younger siblings.

Should we allow our 3 year old to ride with us? If not (and I'm guessing it will be not

), could you provide a brief explanation of why? The why part is less for me than for my DH or other parents who may ask why we aren't letting her take the ride. Why is it unsafe for a 3 year old, but safer than a car for a 5 year old? Thanks!

BookMama · Aug 18, 2011

What exactly will the bus ride entail? One lap around the parking lot? A practice run of a multi-mile bus route? My answer would depend on the details.

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Pixels · Aug 18, 2011

Preschool age children should be restrained on the bus because they are too small to benefit from compartmentalization.

Jennifer mom to my 7 · Aug 18, 2011

When they do this at our Kindergarten orientation, the parents do NOT ride with the kids. It is the kids, an aide, the driver, and their teacher. It is to allow the children to get orientated with the bus, so parents and siblings do not ride.

New York state law is child must be over 4 years old or over 40 pounds to ride on the bus without a 5 point harness.

hrice · Aug 18, 2011

Pixels said:
Preschool age children should be restrained on the bus because they are too small to benefit from compartmentalization.

Is this true for a 40 pound 4.5 year old?

Jennifer mom to my 7 · Aug 18, 2011

hrice said:
Is this true for a 40 pound 4.5 year old?

No. I think this is in reference to the op's 3 year old

Not your average kindergartener.

Athena · Aug 18, 2011

Thanks for the responses!

BookMama said:
What exactly will the bus ride entail? One lap around the parking lot? A practice run of a multi-mile bus route? My answer would depend on the details.

I don't know the exact route, but from what I've heard it's a couple miles and could get up to 45 MPH.

Jennifer mom to my 7 said:
When they do this at our Kindergarten orientation, the parents do NOT ride with the kids. It is the kids, an aide, the driver, and their teacher. It is to allow the children to get orientated with the bus, so parents and siblings do not ride.

Unless it is changing this year ... in the past they let the whole family ride. I was surprised by that.

Jennifer mom to my 7 said:
New York state law is child must be over 4 years old or over 40 pounds to ride on the bus without a 5 point harness.

Does that mean that compartmentalization works for age 4+? Sorry to be so confused, but I don't really understand how compartmentalization works. And a 5 year old who is not quite 40 pounds would be safe riding the bus?

What about the seat back heights? While searching your site on this topic, I found something about the seat heights being increased. Of course, now I cannot find it, but it sounded like the seat backs on school buses would not provide most children with neck/head support. Is that the case?

Pixels · Aug 18, 2011

Seat backs on school buses are tall enough to support all but the tallest kids. Basically, anybody under puberty age is fine. Some but not all high school kids will be too tall. I think the increase was 2 or 4 inches, not a huge increase.

ETA: Buses manufactured before 10/31/09 had a minimum seat back height of 24 inches. Buses made on or after that date have a minimum seat back height of 28 inches.

Athena · Aug 18, 2011

Thanks. That is higher than I was thinking it was. Although 24" doesn't sound that great (and I'd assume a lot of buses are a few years old) ... I'm going to measure my DD's nautilus to compare. She's on the top slots of that. how much of her head does the bus seat back need to cover to be safe? that might be a reason to take her on the ride, to check out her in the seat. maybe she'll have tons of room and then I won't worry so much about it.

Pixels · Aug 18, 2011

24 inches is about even with my mouth. I'm not sure just how much of the head needs to be covered, but I'm sure she'll have plenty of height.

Athena · Aug 19, 2011

Pixels, I just read your explanation of bus safety and compartmentalization in a thread from last month. It helped a lot with my understanding.

Thanks for the help with this. We have decided that our 3 year old will NOT take the bus ride, but we will let our 5 year old take the bus ride that day and am now considering letting her ride the bus during the school year.

The only question I still have is when is the cut off? Would our 3 year old be old enough to ride the bus next year, at age 4? Or would a 40 pound 3 year old be okay? Does anyone know where we are supposed to draw the line on this?

(And I'm suddenly wondering how this relates to city buses and subways and if I've made some mistakes in the past about this.

)

Thanks! As usual, this is a great site and you all are so helpful and informative!

Pixels · Aug 19, 2011

Athena said:
Pixels, I just read your explanation of bus safety and compartmentalization in a thread from last month. It helped a lot with my understanding.

Thanks for the help with this. We have decided that our 3 year old will NOT take the bus ride, but we will let our 5 year old take the bus ride that day and am now considering letting her ride the bus during the school year.

The only question I still have is when is the cut off? Would our 3 year old be old enough to ride the bus next year, at age 4? Or would a 40 pound 3 year old be okay? Does anyone know where we are supposed to draw the line on this?

They sort of go back and forth between 40 and 50 pounds. http://www.nasdpts.org/Documents/Paper-VestHarnessGuidance.pdf

Age/maturity also comes into play. A very young child who won't stay seated and is on the floor or wandering the aisle is obviously not safe, but perhaps if the child's parent is sitting right next to the child then the child will be seated properly. Of course with a fidgeting toddler there's the temptation to sit them on your lap to keep them contained, which is absolutely not safe because the adult would crush the child in a crash.

(And I'm suddenly wondering how this relates to city buses and subways and if I've made some mistakes in the past about this.)

Thanks! As usual, this is a great site and you all are so helpful and informative!

City buses and subways don't have compartmentalization like school buses do. However, public transportation is very safe in general.

Athena · Aug 19, 2011

Pixels said:
They sort of go back and forth between 40 and 50 pounds.

I looked at the link. Thanks. I'm not sure what to think now because my average weight 5 year old is just short of 40 pounds ... and who knows when she'll be 50 pounds. Would you wait to let her ride the bus? Or maybe let her take this special ride with parent, but wait to let her ride daily?

Pixels said:
Of course with a fidgeting toddler there's the temptation to sit them on your lap to keep them contained, which is absolutely not safe because the adult would crush the child in a crash.

Good to know!

ETA: Or is the 40-50 pound thing only for younger kids like 3-4 year olds? maybe I misunderstood.

Athena · Aug 25, 2011

In case anyone wants to know how this worked out ... We let our 5 year old take the practice bus ride. It was longer than expected at about 15 minutes and at speeds up to 50 MPH. As I had heard, there were younger kids and kids on laps and it was packed. However, thanks to what we learned here, we knew not to allow our 3 year old to ride. (Thanks!) I understand that most parents haven't been as lucky as us to find this site and that it *feels* safer to hold one's child, but what surprises me is that the bus company is not concerned about their liability. I'll be driving her at first (I'd prefer for her to be at least 40 pounds to ride daily), but at least she's had the bus experience for when we feel comfortable letting her ride. Thanks for the help!

Athena · Aug 25, 2011

Pixels said:
24 inches is about even with my mouth. I'm not sure just how much of the head needs to be covered, but I'm sure she'll have plenty of height.

P.S. I did notice the height and she is well covered by the seat back now at just 5 years old and will be for a while. However, it was not high enough to protect me from whiplash (behind my neck, but not my head), so hopefully they will be higher by the time she's in high school.

Minimum age to ride big yellow school bus unrestrained?

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