Shocking Number of Buses Have Now Failed Inspections in Minnesota

Parents across Minnesota might be shocked to find out just how many school buses failed their annual safety exams because it's likely a higher number than you'd think!

Usually, when you think of tests and schools here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, you might think of students. However these tests concerned the safety of school buses, and the number of vehicles that failed their annual safety inspections is pretty high.

According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), state statutes require every school bus to be inspected annually by the Minnesota​ State Patrol. These mandated inspections are carried out by seven regional inspection teams, DPS said.

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And according to a recent Fox 9 TV story, nearly 24 percent of school buses across the North Star State failed their 2024 individual safety inspections. Overall that's a fairly small percentage, it still means that over 4,500 individual school buses didn't pass inspection last year. Which seems like a lot, doesn't it?

Fox 9 said that overall, 4,519 school buses failed their annual safety inspections across Minnesota last year, a number that's nearly triple the 1,513 school buses that failed inspections back in 2019.

So why are so many more school buses failing inspections now? The DPS said the reason is likely due to new, tougher standards adopted by the National Congress on Student Transportation. That group updates the national standards every five years, with the most recent update occurring in 2021. Those standards are then adopted through Minnesota Statute 169.4501.

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So just what happens when a school bus fails its inspection? The DPS explains:

This school bus is immediately prohibited from transporting school children until the defects are corrected. A rejection sticker is affixed to the bus. Pending re-inspection by the State Patrol, a school bus bearing a rejection sticker may be used to transport pupils only if all defects have been corrected and the inspection form has been signed by the owner or designee certifying the corrections.

So how did the school buses in YOUR district do on their 2024 inspections? You can find that complete list HERE. Keeping those laws concerning school bus inspections updated is important. Speaking of laws, keep scrolling to check out some major laws that are on the books these days, and which ones passed the year you were born.

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