Existing law requires every schoolbus, while being used for the transportation of school pupils at or below the 12th-grade level, to bear upon the front and rear of the bus a plainly visible sign containing the word “schoolbus” in letters not less than 8 inches in height. Existing law authorizes state funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to be distributed to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for distribution to certain local educational agencies for the purchase of low- or zero-emission schoolbuses that replace, or increase the number of, schoolbuses in the existing schoolbus fleet or for retrofitting existing schoolbuses to achieve reductions in emissions, as specified.

This bill would authorize a school district, county office of education, or charter school using a zero-emission schoolbus to transport pupils at or below the 12th-grade level to place signage on the rear of the zero-emission schoolbus that identifies the schoolbus as a clean air zero-emission bus. The bill would also authorize the Department of the California Highway Patrol to issue guidelines governing the size and placement of that signage.