To obtain a school bus endorsement, you must:

When driving a vehicle capable of transporting 16 or more including the driver (Federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986).

No person shall operate any school bus owned by or under contract with a public school or the state board of education unless such driver has qualified for a school bus (S) endorsement and complied with the pertinent rules and regulations of the Department of Revenue.  A school bus operator must have successfully passed an examination for the operation of a school bus as prescribed by the director of revenue.  The examination shall include, but need not be limited to, a written skills examination of applicable laws, rules and procedures, and a driving test in the type of vehicle t

Administrative costs increase allowable costs that could increase the district’s transportation reimbursement; however, administrative costs could also make a district more inefficient thereby incurring or increasing a penalty for inefficiency.

If a school district’s cost factor is 104.00% or below it is considered efficient.  If a district’s cost factor is above 104.00% it is considered inefficient and the district will receive a financial penalty (5 CSR 30-261.040 (8) (A) 1-5).

The district’s cost factor is the ratio of the district’s actual costs to the district’s predicted costs based on an analysis of the district’s data.  If the ratio is one hundred percent or less, the district program is assumed to be efficient.  If the percentage is greater than one hundred percent, there is presumed inefficiency.  The State Board of Education uses this cost factor expressed as a percentage to adjust allowable costs as an incentive for economical service.  A variance factor of four percent based statistically on the standard error has been determined to

An analysis of transportation statistics has confirmed a strong correlation between the average number of bus miles per pupil traveled each day and the average cost per pupil mile.  Based on this correlation, a curvilinear regression analysis is computed to predict the cost per pupil mile, based on the number of miles per pupil per day for each district.  Each district has a unique predicted cost factor (5 CSR 30-261.040 (8)).

Administrative support service expenditures cannot exceed five percent for district-operated and contracted transportation services for each school district's total allowable cost for transportation (5 CSR 30-261.040 (1)(I)).

If a board of education determines that certain students who live less than one mile from school or who are provided shuttle transportation less than one mile to and from specialized learning opportunities are transported at no appreciable expense to that incurred in the transportation of eligible students, a district may provide transportation to these students without increasing or diminishing its entitlement to state transportation aid (5 CSR 30-261.040 (4)(B)).

When stopping the school bus must be visible for at least five hundred feet in each direction on a highway with no shoulder and a speed limit greater than sixty miles per hour.  The bus must be visible for at least three hundred feet in each direction on other roadways (304.050, RSMo).