School Bus Purchasing and Reimbursement. School districts are responsible for selecting, paying for, and maintaining student transportation vehicles purchased by the district. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is responsible for developing categories and competitive specifications for school bus acquisitions as well as a corresponding list of school bus dealers with the lowest purchase price quotes. School districts and educational service districts that purchase buses through this competitive quote process or through a separate lowest-price competitive bid process are eligible for certain state funds based on the category of vehicle, the anticipated lifetime of vehicles of this category, and a state reimbursement rate. The accumulated value of the state payments received by the district and the potential investment return is designed to be equal to the replacement cost of the vehicle, less its salvage value, at the end of its anticipated lifetime.
In 2022, the Legislature passed SHB 1644, which expanded the allowable uses of money from a transportation vehicle fund to include:
Zero-Emission School Bus Grant Program. The Washington State Clean Diesel Program operates a Zero-Emission School Bus Grant Program that provides up to $14 million in funding to scrap and replace diesel school buses with new zero-emission school buses, including charging or fueling infrastructure. School bus owners that transport students to K-12 public schools, including charter and tribal-compact schools, are eligible to apply. Funding levels are tiered based on an applicant district's Free or Reduced-Price Lunch (FRPL) percentage or Rural School District status. Applicants are also scored based on criteria related to the vehicle's age, whether the district is located in a highly impacted overburdened community, and the district's percentage of economically disadvantaged children.
Zero-Emission Vehicle School Bus Grants. The Department of Ecology (Ecology) must administer a Zero-Emission School Bus Grant Program within the Clean Diesel Grant Program for buses, infrastructure, and other related costs. Grants are provided to transition from fossil-fuel school buses to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), which are defined as vehicles that produce zero exhaust emission of any air pollutant and any greenhouse gas other than water vapor.
Grants may be used for the following purposes:
Grants are in addition to payments under the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) depreciation schedule, and may be combined with other sources of funding. Once the OSPI school bus depreciation schedule is adjusted to fund the cost of ZEV school bus purchases, Ecology must transition the grant program to focus solely on charging infrastructure grants. Ecology may retain up to 3.5 percent of funds for administering the grant program and 6.5 percent of funds for technical assistance to grant recipients.
Ecology must prioritize the following grant recipients, in descending order of priority:
Ecology, in consultation with OSPI, must submit a report to the Governor and Legislature updating on the status of the ZEV School Bus Grant Program by June 1, 2025. The report must include a summary of recommendations and implementation considerations for transitioning the grant program to the school bus depreciation schedule.
Zero-Emission Vehicle School Bus Acquisition. Ecology, in consultation with OSPI, must adopt rules to establish the formulas used to calculate the total cost of ownership for school buses. Prior to the adoption of these rules, OSPI must publish optional preliminary guidance that school districts may follow regarding total cost of ownership. Once total cost of ownership of ZEV buses is determined to be at or below the total cost of ownership of diesel school buses:
These requirements do not apply to diesel buses purchased by a school district prior to the determination that ZEV school bus total cost of ownership is at or below the cost of ownership of diesel school buses, or for use cases where needs, including the mileage needs of bus routes, are not capable of being met by the ZEV bus technical capabilities. The use of externally-vented fuel-operated passenger heaters are authorized from November 15th to March 15th annually until other viable alternatives become available.
OSPI reimbursements to school districts must reflect the full cost of ZEV buses, excluding operating costs covered by OSPI or infrastructure eligible for Ecology grants. OSPI must solicit competitive price quotes for ZEV buses.
Zero-Emission Vehicle School Bus Survey. By November 15, 2024, OSPI, in consultation with Ecology, must carry out a survey of school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal education compact schools focused on the uptake and total cost of ownership of ZEV school buses. OSPI must submit a report to the Legislature summarizing its findings by December 1, 2024.
The survey must collect the following information from each school district and school: