DENVER — A bipartisan bill being proposed in Colorado has the goal of catching more drivers who illegally pass a school bus.
The bill would allow the state, a county, a city and a county, or a municipality to install and use something similar to a red light camera on school buses. The action would require approval from the school district's board of education.
The technology is known as automated vehicle identification systems or AVIS. It would be used on the school district's school buses to detect a driver of a vehicle who overtakes a stopped school bus with actuated visual signal lights in violation of current law.
Republican Rep. Jarvis Caldwell and Democratic Representative Amy Paschal along with Democratic Sen. Faith Winter are the prime sponsors of HB 25-1230 "Changes Violation Driver Overtaking School Bus."
"If an AVIS detects such a violation, the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may impose a civil penalty of not more than $300 for the violation," part of the bill's summer reads. "The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that when an image produced by an AVIS includes an electronic indicator signifying that a school bus's visual signal lights are actuated, the visual signal lights are presumed to be actuated and operational."
"The goal there, obviously, is to discourage running school bus stops and keep our parents and kids safe," Rep. Caldwell who represents El Paso County told News5. "This is completely permissive. So if a school district wants to put these on their school buses, they can go to their county or their municipality and have them... So there's no cost to the state on this, because it's completely permissive in statute."
According to the bill's fiscal note, the bill creates a new factual basis for the existing class 2 misdemeanor offense of overtaking a school bus by changing the definition of “highway with separate roadways.” From FY 2021-22 to FY 2023-24, 71 were convicted and sentenced for this offense.
The bill is scheduled to be heard in the House Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee Wednesday afternoon.
Several organizations are against technology such as AVIS tied to data collection concerns. News5 was unable to make contact with an organization or individual who was opposed to this bill, if you would like to provide comment you can email Tony.Keith@koaa.com.
A similar bill put forth in 2023 would have required all route school buses to install AVIS equipment, but that bill failed in committee 11-0. This 2025 bill makes the AVIS equipment an option.
The full summary of HB25-1230 can be read below:
Section 1 of the bill permits the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality to, with approval from a school district's board of education, install and utilize automated vehicle identification systems (AVIS) on the school district's school buses to detect a driver of a vehicle that overtakes a stopped school bus with actuated visual signal lights in violation of current law. If an AVIS detects such a violation, the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may impose a civil penalty of not more than $300 for the violation. The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that when an image produced by an AVIS includes an electronic indicator signifying that a school bus's visual signal lights are actuated, the visual signal lights are presumed to be actuated and operational.
The bill mandates that the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality that installs an AVIS on a school bus shall not use the fines collected through the use of the AVIS system to compensate the AVIS manufacturer or vendor and that any such compensation paid to the manufacturer or vendor must not be based exclusively upon the number of citations issued or revenue generated by the AVIS.
Current law states that a driver on a highway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus that is on a different roadway. Section 2 amends the definition of "highway with separate roadways" to include a roadway separated by physical barriers and to exclude a roadway separated by a painted median.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
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