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Nearly every morning when I bring my son out to his transportation van for school, cars from our neighborhood speed by us.

We live at the entrance of a suburban neighborhood, and my son’s transportation van picks him up each day to drive him to his specialty school for youth with complex medical and special education needs. Bus driver Steve and bus monitor Carol have been escorting my son to and from school for the better part of five years. They are a dream team.

And, for the better part of five years, I have watched cars speed by as we load my son into his van. Steve has escalated his response to these delinquent drivers over the years. He flashes his lights. He beeps the horn. He rolls down his window and motions with his arms to stop. He yells out at the drivers. He calls in license plates on his radio to dispatch. He alerts the dispatchers to watch video from the cameras that are installed on his bus, to see if they can identify the dangerous drivers.

Despite his best efforts, none of it seems to make any difference. 

Perhaps that’s not surprising. Even though to pass a stopped school bus with its stop sign out and red lights flashing, upward of 242,000 drivers illegally pass yellow school buses each day in the United States, with more than occurring each school year. 

And that’s just for yellow school buses. But not all school buses are yellow.

For every school district’s fleet of yellow buses, there are an average of that transport some of the 7.5 million students, ages 3 to 21, who receive and benefit from additional support on their way to and from school. They represent 15% of all students in that age range in the United States.

Although all school transportation vans have a black School Bus sign on top, flashing red lights and a stop sign arm that extends during boarding, most of them are not yellow. 

And that seems to make matters worse.

One morning, bus driver Steve opened his door and literally forced a minivan that was speeding by us to stop. The driver was a mom who lives just a few houses away. She was holding her phone in her hand, and her three school-aged children were in the car. 

She looked bewildered, even though she has driven by us nearly every day for years. On this day, after I secured my son in his car seat, I walked over and re-introduced myself. I explained that our bus driver was asking her to stop because I was loading my son onto his school bus. 

鈥淭hat is not a school bus,鈥� she replied matter-of-factly. 鈥淚 didn’t know I was supposed to stop.鈥�

In her defense, she鈥檚 not alone. In my observations, drivers are just as likely to begrudgingly pull over and shout 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know I was supposed to stop鈥� as they are to continue past us as though they didn鈥檛 see us in the first place. It doesn’t matter if it’s an elderly neighbor, a new driver, someone running late, a busy parent on the phone, even a public works employee driving an official town vehicle. Next to none of them stop.

My observations check out: A of over 3,500 drivers showed that people likely illegally pass stopped yellow school buses because they didn鈥檛 care (30.5%), were in a hurry (25.5%), didn鈥檛 know the law (24.3%) or were distracted (12.2%).

And that data is, of course, based on yellow school buses. Because for all the reports that have been written on the prevalence of illegal passing of school buses from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is not a single mention of special education transportation vans.

Not one.

So here is a public-service announcement for drivers in every neighborhood in the nation: Not all school buses are yellow. And, no matter the color or the size of the vehicle being used to bring students to and from school, when the school bus lights are on and the stop arm is out, you are required to stop. 

Please don鈥檛 wait until a child is struck by a car driving illegally past a school transportation van to make this an issue you care about. 

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