News & Insights

Many Pennsylvania school bus contractors invest significant time and resources into training new drivers, including providing federally required Entry-Driver Level Training (“ELDT”) at their facilities. Recently, questions have been raised about requirements under the Pennsylvania Private Licensed Schools Act (the “PLSA”). More specifically, some school transportation contractors that provide training have questioned whether licensing is required to train certain types of individuals, and whether training reimbursement agreements for school bus driver’s trained and employed by the contractor permissible under applicable state law.

Under federal law, ELDT providers must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) Training Provider Registry. 49 C.F.R. §380.703. In order to maintain registration, FMCSA requires the training providers to comply with applicable state licensing requirements. §§380.703(5), 380.719(a)(4). In Pennsylvania, these licensing requirements are governed by the PLSA, which requires any school providing occupational training for profit or tuition to obtain a license. 24 P.S. §6502.

Importantly, there are a number of exemptions under the PLSA, including schools that provide training in public and other service occupations. Id. Pennsylvania Department of Education (“PDE”) regulations expressly state that school bus drivers are considered engaged in a public service occupation. 22 Pa. Code §73.42(3). So, training provided to a school bus driver falls outside of the PLSA, meaning that no special training license is required.

Guidance from PDE also establishes three types of non-school bus specific ELDT training that does not required licensing. These include: 1) Employer Provided Training (free-free/tuition-free) – providing ELDT training to employees free of charge; 2) Business to Business Training –providing ELDT training to another company’s employees and is paid for by that employer; and 3) Online Theory-Only Training – providing theory training online but no in-person or behind-the-wheel training. School transportation contractors that train their own employees for other lines of transportation, such as coach vehicles, or train drivers from other businesses, may fall under the Employer Provided Training or Business to Business Training exceptions provided by PDE.

PDE guidance further clarifies that, in order for the Employer Provided Training (fee-free/tuition-free) exception to apply, employees can at no-time be charged for training even if the employee does not successfully complete the program. Accordingly, PDE has taken the position that employers who wish to rely on the Employer Provided Training (fee-free/tuition-free) exception may not use training reimbursement agreements. Of note, this does not prevent school bus contractors from using training reimbursement agreements for drivers trained to drive a school bus, due to the school bus specific exemption discussed above. School transportation contractors who provide ELDT training to both school bus and non-school bus employees should clearly distinguish the two training programs and carefully evaluate whether training reimbursement agreements comply with state requirements. If you provide ELDT training and have questions on above, please contact us at 215-896-3846 or help@rckelly.com.