Section 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.