About ten years ago three school districts in California made news due to the fact that they were going to be switching their school bus system to electric vehicles rather than diesel ones. This marked a shift that many expected to become widespread, however as the years have gone by, we have seen that has not quite been the case. Less than one percent of the school buses run throughout the entire United States are electric.

There were approximately 489,000 school buses in operation in the country by the end of 2023.

Given this number, that means that less than 5,000 school buses run electrically in the U.S. This makes school buses one of the largest fleets of contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The fuel used to power the buses generates toxins and carcinogens and releases them into the atmosphere. These toxins, especially when breathed in so heavily and frequently by children, not only affect the planet’s health, but also the health of the people!

Even though technology has steadily improved since the first electric school buses were introduced, in California, the few other buses that transitioned too electric only really did so very recently. Most of the few thousand electric buses were put to use in the last two years.

The good news is that this transition to electric buses seems to be growing.

Even though it was a slow moving process to get started, the two years in which most electric buses were put in use allowed the numbers to triple. The numbers are still very small; however, this suggests a good sign for the future and furthering a shift towards largely electric vehicles being in use. From 2020 to 2023, the number of kids riding in an electric school bus went from around 20,000 to 200,000. More state’s also began to establish their own set of rules and goals.

Wyoming is the one last hold out state. Every other state has at least one school district in it that utilizes electric buses.

Parents across the country that live in school district zones without electric school buses are complaining to their school and district administration to let them know they want their children to be transported in electric buses. Many have expressed the environmental concerns as well as the health concerns they hold for their children.