Back to School: Idaho transportation changes

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The first day of school is one short weekend away and the State Department of Education is reminding drivers to be alert and drive safely around school busses.

In order to promote better student safety when taking the bus, the state legislature passed a bill to increase fines for drivers passing the bus while the stop arm is out and kids are getting on or off.

Idaho’s transportation staff both old and new also had the opportunity to attend a conference where they gained hands-on experience in their respective roles.

The student transportation director spoke about how these two things align with the program’s mission.

“The goal of the Idaho Department of Education’s Student Transportation Program is to support school districts and charter schools by providing technical training, financial reimbursement training and student transportation safety training,” said Ali Stolzman, of the State Department of Education.

In the past few years, the State Department of Education has noticed an increase in the amount of people not following proper bus stop rules which is why the bill was passed, and Stolzman also issued another reminder for drivers.

“I think the biggest thing is with the first day of school approaching drivers are once again going to be sharing the road with our school busses and our biggest concern this time of year is inattentive drivers and speeding. Most of our stop arm violations that we see statewide encounter these actions so we at the state in supporting our school districts, ask that Idaho drivers slow down and stop when the school bus stop arm is out,” Stolzman said.

The bill also gave the State Department of Education administrative rights to the school bus camera fund to support local law enforcement agencies in securing convictions for bus stop arm violations.

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