School Bus

1. Definition and Legal Basis

School bus refers to a passenger vehicle with 7 seats or more that has obtained an operating permit under the "Regulations on School Bus Safety Management" and is deployed to transport students receiving compulsory education to and from school. Gazetted and enforced by the State Council on 5 April 2012 (State Council Decree No. 617), this regulation stands as the highest-level statutory framework governing school bus safety management. School buses used to transport primary school students must be dedicated primary school buses engineered and built in compliance with national standards for purpose-built school buses; standard passenger vehicles are strictly prohibited as substitutes.

2. School Bus Permit Requirements

Operating a school bus requires a valid permit, and applicants must satisfy all five statutory criteria:

• Vehicle compliance: Fully complies with national school bus safety standards, has completed vehicle registration, and holds a valid roadworthiness certificate;

• Driver qualification: Assigned a designated driver holding valid school bus driving credentials;

• Operational routing: Supported by a viable, well-planned operational schedule detailing travel routes, operating hours, and designated pick-up/drop-off points;

• Safety management: Equipped with a robust and comprehensive safety management system;

• Insurance coverage: Covered by valid motor vehicle passenger carrier liability insurance.

The application workflow requires submitting an application to the county-level or districted municipal education authority, followed by review and consultation with the corresponding traffic police and transport authorities, before final approval by the local government at the corresponding level.

3. School Bus Driver Eligibility

To drive a school bus, an individual must obtain a formal school bus driving qualification and meet all of the following requirements:

• Hold a valid driving licence for the corresponding vehicle class with at least 3 years of driving experience, aged between 25 and 60 years old;

• Have no record of accumulated maximum demerit points across the last 3 consecutive demerit scoring cycles;

• Have no record of at-fault traffic accidents resulting in fatalities or severe injuries;

• Have no record of drink-driving or driving under the influence (DUI), and no major traffic violations such as passenger vehicle overloading or speeding within the past 12 months;

• Have a clean criminal record;

• Be in good physical and mental health, free from infectious diseases or medical conditions that could compromise driving safety (such as epilepsy or mental health disorders), with no history of alcohol or drug abuse.

4. Core Road Safety Regulations

• Maximum speed limits: When ferrying students, a school bus must not exceed 80 km/h on expressways and must not exceed 60 km/h on other roads. Under adverse conditions such as sharp bends, steep gradients, icy, snowy, or muddy surfaces, or during low visibility, the speed must not exceed 20 km/h.

• Right-of-way when stopping: When a school bus stops on the road to pick up or drop off students, vehicles behind it and in adjacent lanes must come to a complete stop and wait. Vehicles in other lanes must slow down when passing and are strictly prohibited from sounding the horn or flashing their headlights to rush the bus.

• Designated routes and stops: Buses must strictly adhere to officially approved routes and stop only at designated school bus stops; on road stretches without dedicated stops, standard public bus stops may be used.

5. Management Mechanism and Government Accountability

Local people's governments at or above the county level bear overall responsibility for school bus safety management within their respective administrative areas and must formulate comprehensive school bus service programmes. School bus services may be operated directly by schools, or contracted to licensed road passenger transport companies, public transit operators, or officially registered school bus service providers. The state provides a multi-channel funding framework to support school bus operations via fiscal subsidies, tax relief, and public donations.

6. Special Provisions for Kindergarten Buses

Kindergartens must be strategically planned and distributed to enable children to enrol close to home. In principle, preschool children should be dropped off and picked up by their guardians. Where collective vehicle transportation is genuinely required due to special circumstances, purpose-built dedicated preschool school buses complying with national standards must be used, and they remain fully subject to these school bus safety regulations.