Every morning and afternoon, children across Massachusetts step on and off school buses trusting that the adults driving around them will obey one of the simplest rules of the road: when a school bus stops, flashes its red lights, and extends its stop sign, you stop.

Far too many drivers don’t.

In the 2026 National School Bus Illegal Passing Survey, 101,334 school bus drivers across 39 states and Washington, D.C., reported 56,024 illegal passes in just one day. Because those drivers represented only about 26% of the nation’s school bus drivers, researchers estimated that more than 213,800 motorists illegally pass stopped school buses on a typical school day, approximately 38.4 million violations over a 180-day school year. 

Every one of those violations creates an unnecessary opportunity for a tragedy.

And this isn’t an abstract problem somewhere else in the country. It is happening here in Massachusetts.

In March 2024, an elementary school student in Brockton was struck by a passing vehicle while getting off a school bus. According to school officials, the bus was stopped at the time, its red lights were flashing, and its stop sign was activated. Thankfully, that child was not believed to have suffered serious injuries. The outcome could easily have been very different. 

Then in September 2025, a student in Hadley was crossing the road to board a school bus when a vehicle nearly struck them, again, while the bus’s stop sign was displayed. Police initially sought help identifying the vehicle and worked with the bus company to obtain better video. A tip from another motorist ultimately helped police identify the driver. 

We should not have to rely on luck, witnesses, or a nearby security camera to identify someone who drives past a stopped school bus.

Massachusetts law is already clear. Drivers approaching a school bus with flashing red lights must stop. MassDOT regularly reminds drivers of this when school starts each year. 

The problem is enforcement.

A school bus driver has one overriding responsibility at a bus stop: protecting the children in their care. We should not expect that driver to simultaneously watch children crossing the road, operate the bus safely, identify a passing vehicle, memorize a license plate, document the incident, and provide evidence sufficient for enforcement.

Technology can do that for them.

Massachusetts has already created the solution. Now we need to fund it.

In January 2025, Massachusetts enacted Chapter 399 of the Acts of 2024, An Act concerning the safety of school children embarking and disembarking school buses. The law allows cities and towns to install school-bus violation detection systems specifically designed to document motorists who illegally pass stopped school buses. 

These systems can capture photographic and video evidence of the violation, including the vehicle’s license plate and the date, time, and location. The law also contains privacy protections governing how those images can be collected, used, retained, and disclosed. 

Massachusetts did the hard legislative work. We authorized the technology. But authorization alone doesn’t put a camera on a school bus.

For cities, towns, and school districts already struggling with transportation costs, special education expenses, aging facilities, staffing shortages, and tight municipal budgets, purchasing and operating a new camera system can be difficult to prioritize.

That means we risk creating two Massachusettses: communities that can afford this additional layer of protection for their children, and communities that cannot.

A child’s safety should not depend on their ZIP code or their community’s tax base.

What we are asking Massachusetts to do:

We call on Governor Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature to establish a dedicated statewide funding mechanism,  through grants, reimbursements, appropriations, or another sustainable funding model, to help Massachusetts cities, towns, regional school districts, and school transportation providers install and operate school-bus stop-arm violation detection systems.

State support should prioritize making this technology accessible to communities of every size and income level, including rural and smaller municipalities where local budgets may make implementation especially difficult.

This does not need to become another unfunded mandate on municipalities.

It can instead become a partnership: the Commonwealth establishes the safety standard and provides communities with the resources necessary to put it into practice.

The Commonwealth has already recognized the danger. It has already authorized the technology. Now Massachusetts should make sure communities can actually use it.

We shouldn’t wait until a Massachusetts child is seriously injured or killed by a driver illegally passing a stopped school bus to decide that these cameras were worth funding.

A flashing red light isn’t a suggestion.

An extended school bus stop sign isn’t a suggestion.

Stop means stop.

Please sign this petition and ask Governor Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature to fund school-bus stop-arm safety cameras statewide and give every Massachusetts community the tools to protect its children.