Interpretation ID: aiam3554
Transportation Supervisor
Nebraska Department of Education
301 Centennial Mall South
Box 94987
Lincoln
NE 68509;
Dear Mr. Clark: This responds to your March 23, 1982, letter asking whether it i permissible to install side-facing seats in school buses designed to transport the handicapped. The answer to your question is yes.; Standard No. 222, *School Bus Passenger Seating and Crash Protection* specifies the requirements for school bus passenger seats and, in general, requires those seats to be forward facing. However, the definition of 'school bus passenger seat' in section S4 of the standard excludes seats installed to accommodate handicapped or convalescent passengers as evidenced by installing those seats longitudinally. Therefore, seats installed in the buses to which you refer in your letter need not comply with the school bus seat requirements if they are designed to accommodate the handicapped and are side facing.; We caution, however, that side-facing seats afford less protection tha forward facing seats. Accordingly, only those seats necessary to accommodate the handicapped should be altered in this manner.; Sincerely, Frank Berndt, Chief Counsel