Interpretation ID: 17680.DRN
Mr. Don Cote
Inventory/Fleet Manager
Northside Ford
9800 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX78216
Dear Mr. Cote:
This responds to your letter regarding the use of 15-passenger vans by a child care facility to drop off and pick up school children from school "on regular school days." You ask whether the vans are "school buses" under Federal law. As explained below, a new 15-passenger van sold or leased for such a purpose is a school bus. When your dealership sells or leases new buses for the use you describe, the dealership must sell or lease only buses that meet Federal motor vehicle safety standards for school buses, even when the purchaser is a child care facility.
Your letter explains that you are aware of a child care facility that uses 15-passenger vans to transport children "on a regular basis." In the morning, the child care facility uses the vans to take children from the facility to school. When school is over, the vans are used again to transport the children from school back to the child care facility. In a telephone conversation with Dorothy Nakama of my staff, you explained that in the morning, the children's parents drop the children off at the child care facility, and the parents pick the children up from the facility in the evening. The children range in age from kindergarten to junior high school. You explained that by "on a regular basis," you meant that the transportation is provided "on regular school days."
By way of background, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is authorized to issue and enforce Federal motor vehicle safety standards applicable to new motor vehicles, including school buses. In 1974, Congress enacted legislation directing NHTSA to issue safety standards on specific aspects of school bus safety.
Our statute at 49 U.S.C. 30112 requires any person selling or leasing a new vehicle to sell or lease a vehicle that meets all applicable standards. Under our regulations, a "bus" is any vehicle, including a van, that has a seating capacity of 11 persons or more. Our statute defines a "school bus" as any vehicle that is designed for carrying 11 or more persons and which is likely to be "used significantly" to transport "preprimary, primary, and secondary" students to or from school or related events (emphasis added). 49 U.S.C. 30125. Therefore, a 15-passenger van that is likely to be used significantly to transport students is a "school bus."
If the new van is sold or leased to transport students (e.g., leased on a regular or long-term basis), the vehicle must meet NHTSA's school bus standards. Conventional 15-passenger vans are not certified as doing so, and thus cannot be sold or leased, as new vehicles, to carry students on a regular basis.
Whether buses are "used significantly" to transport the students is an issue that the agency finds appropriate to resolve case-by-case, focusing on the intended use of the vehicle. In the situation you describe, the child care facility is using vans to transport children to or from school "on regular school days." Such recurring and consistent use of the van to transport students "to or from school" would constitute a "significant" use of the vehicle. Therefore, when you sell or lease new buses to any child care facility for the purpose of taking students to or picking students up from school, you must sell or lease buses that meet the Federal motor vehicle safety standards applicable to "school buses."[1]
The requirements for the use of a motor vehicle are determined by State law, so Texas's requirements should be consulted to determine how students must be transported to and from school or school-related activities. NHTSA believes that school buses are one of the safest forms of transportation in this country, and therefore strongly recommends that all buses that are used to transport school children be certified as meeting NHTSA's school bus safety standards. In addition, using 15-passenger vans that do not meet the school bus standards to transport students could result in increased liability in the event of a crash.
I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact Dorothy Nakama at this address or by telephone at (202) 366-2992.
Sincerely,
Frank Seales, Jr.
Chief Counsel
ref:VSA#571.3
d.7/23/98
[1] As you may be aware, in interpretation letters of May 29, 1991 and September 6, 1991 to Ms. Vel McCaslin, Director of Grace After School, an after school care program, NHTSA stated that buses used to transport children to Ms. McCaslin's program would be "school buses" only if the program is a "school or school-related event." The September 1991 letter indicated that the program picks up children from three area schools and brings them to the church on a "daily" basis. These letters concluded that Grace After School did not appear to be a "school," that the program was not a "school-related event" and that NHTSA's school bus requirements thus did not apply. NHTSA has recently reexamined the two letters to Ms. McCaslin. Upon reconsideration, we have decided that the letters to Ms. McCaslin did not focus enough on the fact that the buses were being used to transport school children "from school," as specified in 49 U.S.C. '30125. Therefore, to the extent the May 29, 1991 and September 6, 1991 letters to Ms. McCaslin are inconsistent with this letter, they are hereby superceded.