South Dakota will add dividers to school buses in response to COVID-19

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - Along with concerns of safety measures in schools, parents want to know what will happen on school buses?

Bus drivers normally conduct their own inspections but this year the state highway patrol has been helping, especially when employees were furloughed or retired due to the pandemic.

Starting in September the state will do random spot inspections and will do it again in January.

The school buses will have a new vinyl divider to surround the bus driver to create some protection from the students.

While some people suggested using Plexiglass as a barrier instead, it turns out that may not be the best option.

”We can’t do a Plexiglass. It’s a barrier, yes I agree with that. The problem is if a child would run into that and hit themselves. It’s not shatterproof. It’s not like windshields. It can get sharp jagged edges. For safety concern for children we did not want the Plexiglass,” Lt. Joel Peterson with South Dakota Highway Patrol, said.

Each bus will have extra disinfectant and will be cleaned twice, once before students board and again after they depart.