I drove in ohio. I left working as a mechanic on buses and big rigs to drive simply because the boss didn't hold up his offer of a raise after a year. I had a friend who worked as a mechanic on a small fleet of buses, so I worked for the summer on the buses and then drove for the school year. I had to get my license the summer I worked as a mechanic for the school, didn't need a license to fix big rigs. I also got to do the required class for drivers. And while a bus has a lot of potential for problems, I never had any close calls. I did have some problems with the kids, but turning the bus around and going back to the school always had the other kids mad at the trouble makers. Peer pressure in action.
I also took the bigger kids and had them in verbal control of the bus. They could watch the other kids, got assigned seats in the back as a bribe. They asked any kid being a problem to stop whatever they were doing and behave. If that did nothing, the kids in the back got the attention of someone in the front, and that kid asked me to check seat number whatever. At a safe point, I would check the seat, and if needed ask for the kid to behave. As long as I saw the misbehaving I could write the kid up. As weird as this system sounds, it worked for me. Other drivers said nothing like that would work, and blah blah blah. I didn't mind driving the buses, and would still be doing so except you either make 10 bucks an hour part time with decent benefits, or you make 12 or more an hour for no benefit, still part time. I drove for the district I live in and had the route that went by my house through the day. So my knowing the kids had a lot to do with it because they could tell the ones I did not know how I acted. I am nice to kids and generally don't care what they do unless damage is done to my property.
Also, being a mechanic I could do a great pre-trip. Besides looking at things, I knew driving what bad bearings or loose lock nuts sounded and felt like. I was able to pinpoint the problem rather than writing, steering feels loose, on the pre-trip. I had a good experience with the bus and kids, terrible with the school board and boss.
Sorry for the long response, but I feel it better explains why I feel good about the buses carrying kids. I don't have any kids or even a wife, so that helps keep the worry down. I saw on field trips lots of buses with problems and districts underfunded. And you still have stupid drivers. Getting a CDL is not easy, nor hard. Kind of like taking a good gun class where you also learn stances and procedures for shooting and get graded on performance both with written test and actual ability to do something. Like I already said, there is great potential for problems, but rules and regs need to be considered. For seatbelts there is a good one. Bus wrecks and rolls. All the kids are now hanging and only some undo belt. Those that are scared are about to be in a bus that will get hit by a truck. Is the driver resposible for getting the kids out? What about undoing belts that got stuck? Do you istall 2 or 3 point belts? Not having belts is also problematic, but thinking belts like what is in a car can easily be installed in a bus is foolish.