§ 3623. School buses. 1. a. The commissioner of transportation in
consultation with the commissioner shall adopt, promulgate and enforce
rules, standards and specifications regulating and controlling the
efficiency and equipment of school buses used to transport pupils, with
particular regard to the safety and convenience of such pupils and the
suitability and adaptability of such school buses to the requirements of
the school district. No school bus shall be purchased by a school
district or used for the transportation of pupils unless and until it
has been approved by the commissioner of transportation as complying
with the rules, standards and specifications relating thereto.

b. No bus manufactured after January first, nineteen hundred
seventy-four shall be used to transport pupils under any contract with a
school district or board of cooperative educational services unless it
has been similarly approved by the commissioner of transportation,
except that no such approval shall be required for buses used to
transport pupils and also used to serve the general public under a
certificate of public convenience for the operation of a bus line,
granted pursuant to the transportation law or for buses used to
transport pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory
capacity to and from school activities and which bus does not receive or
discharge passengers on or along the public highways on regularly
scheduled routes and is operating under a permit as a contract carrier
of passengers granted pursuant to the transportation law or by the
interstate commerce commission. School buses manufactured or assembled
prior to April first, nineteen hundred seventy-seven may not be used to
transport pupils, teachers and other persons acting in a supervisory
capacity to and from school activities.

c. The commissioner shall establish and provide for the enforcement of
rules and regulations requiring instruction on the use of seat safety
belts as specified in subdivision five of section three hundred
eighty-three of the vehicle and traffic law and section thirty-six
hundred thirty-five-a of this chapter, drills in safe boarding and
exiting procedures and emergency drills to be conducted on all school
buses and shall emphasize specific hazards encountered by children
during snow, ice, rain and other inclement weather. All such drills
shall include instruction in the importance of orderly conduct by all
school bus passengers. A minimum of three such drills shall be had on
each school bus during the school year, the first to be conducted during
the first seven days of session of the fall term.

2. The commissioner shall, after public hearing, promulgate rules and
regulations requiring drills on school buses for those pupils who do not
participate in such drills required by subdivision one of this section,
and the commissioner may provide by such rules and regulations for
instructional alternatives to carry out the purposes of this
subdivision.