School Bus Yellow

A school bus is a type of bus used for transporting children and teenagers to and from school and school events. The first school bus was horse-drawn, introduced in 1827 by George Shillibeer for a Quaker school at Abney Park in Stoke Newington, London, United Kingdom, and was designed to carry 25 children.

In North America, the school bus is a specific type of government-regulated vehicle distinct from other types of buses. Canada and the United States have specially built and equipped school buses; by law these are required to be painted school bus yellow and equipped with various forms of warning and safety devices specific to them. In Europe and other parts of the world, the buses used for transporting students are more closely related to other types of buses than their North American counterparts.

North America

In the United States and Canada, school buses are primarily used to transport students. This service is almost always provided without charge to families. In the U.S., the term busing also refers to the transport of students to other than their closest local schools to increase racial integration. Modern school buses may be equipped with amenities lacking only a few years ago such as stereo systems, air conditioning and higher-headroom roofs although high-headroom school buses have been an option as early as the mid 1950s.

General Statistics

School buses provide an estimated 10 billion student trips each year in the U.S. Every school day, 475,000 school buses transport 25 million children to and from schools and school-related activities. School buses are purchased or leased by some school districts, while other school districts engage the service of school bus contractors to perform this function. Approximately 40% of school districts in the United States use contractors to handle student transportation; in Canada, contractors are used almost universally.

Canada

Canadian school buses are very similar to their U.S. counterparts both in terms of overall design and how school systems use them. The largest difference is the adaptation to Canada's bilingual population. In French-speaking Quebec, the signage on the outside of the bus is in French; the front and rear legends read "Ecoliers" (French for "Schoolchildren"), and the stop sign legend may read "Arrêt" (French for "Stop").

Many Canadian-brand school buses are sold in the United States, and there are Canadian-manufactured school buses sold the United States. As of 2010, Canada's only domestic school bus manufacturer is Girardin Minibus. The Corbeil designs made in Canada before the firm's closure in 2008 are now manufactured and sold by Collins Industries in the United States. In Canada, the Blue Bird All American is rebadged as the Blue Bird TX3; in the past, it has also been named the All Canadian and the TC/3000.

The design of student transportation systems in Canada differs slightly than those in the United States; the usage of contractors for transportation operations is much higher among Canadian school districts. School districts rarely provide their own transportation.