Legal Focus

The Federal District Court in Pennsylvania recently confirmed that drivers, aides, and schools are held to a heightened duty or standard of care when transporting special needs students because such students are more vulnerable to harm. The recent case of K.M. v Chichester School District, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16416, explained that a bus driver’s and aide’s error in leaving an autistic child on the bus at the end of a run and the related lack of appropriate training and policies amounted to “...

IRS Notice 2015-87 was published recently stating that the IRS is considering new rules that will apply to school bus contractors. The new rules will change the methods of calculating which employees are “full time” and will result in more school bus contractors being required to comply with the Affordable Care Act by offering healthcare coverage to its employees. You should know about the proposed new rule and voice your opinion when the IRS seeks public comments.

There are several regulations that govern the transportation of students to and from school, including the general requirements of school buses (75 PA C S 4552), equipment and safety requirements for school buses (67 PA Code 171), and general requirements for other vehicles transporting school children (75 PA C S 4553). All school bus contractors must comply with these regulations as well as others. However, a recent case (CBM Ministries of S Cent Pa, Inc. v Pa DOT) implies that these requiremen...

A new statute, Pennsylvania (24 P.S. 14-1414.2) became effective in January 2015 addressing a school’s administration of EpiPens. As a result many schools are reviewing EpiPen handling expectations with their contractors. In some cases, there is confusion about exactly what the new statute means and how it interacts with an older Pennsylvania statute (42 Pa. C.S. 8337.1) that provides civil immunity in some situations to certain people who render emergency care. This article provides informatio...

The school bus sales and use tax exclusion is an important tax exemption for school bus contractors in Pennsylvania. Last month a member contractor successfully challenged an auditor’s limitation of that exclusion. Details follow.

On July 1, 2015 House Bill 1276 was passed and signed into law as Act 15 of 2015 updating the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL) regarding the timing and portability of background checks for employees who have direct contact with children. This amendment to the CPSL makes important changes to coordinate with Pennsylvania’s Public School Code of 1949.

Recently, many school bus contractors have had questions regarding “Act 126” Child Abuse Reporting and Recognition Training for school bus drivers employed by independent contractors that is required by 24 P.S. § 12-1205.6, part of Pennsylvania’s Public School Code of 1949. The most common questions are “what must be taught” and “who is permitted to teach school bus drivers”.