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Clean School Bus Program
The goals of Clean School Bus USA are to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses.
24 million American children ride school buses daily.
On average, these students spend an hour and a half each day in a school bus.
School buses drive more than 4 billion miles each year.
School buses are the safest way for children to get to school. However, pollution from older diesel vehicles has health implications for everyone, especially children. By working together, we can reduce pollution from public school buses -- making sure that school buses are also a clean way for children to get to school. Clean School Bus USA brings together partners from business, education, transportation, and public-health organizations to work toward these goals:
Encouraging policies and practices to eliminate unnecessary public school bus idling.
Upgrading (“retrofitting”) buses that will remain in the fleet with better emission-control technologies and/or fueling them with cleaner fuels.
Replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with new, less-polluting buses.
Magic School Bus
EPA’s Clean School Bus USA program has partnered with Scholastic to write, illustrate, and publish a new book in the popular "Magic School Bus" children’s series. In this acclaimed educational series of books and videos for children from kindergarten through fourth grade, a teacher named Ms. Frizzle takes her class on several science-oriented field trips, riding in their magical school bus.
In “The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up,” the children and Ms. Frizzle explore the pollution emitted from their own diesel school bus and learn about how to reduce the emissions as they find themselves traveling through a diesel engine. The children learn about idle reduction and ways the community can help reduce the health risks from diesel exhaust. At the end of the book, the "Magic School Bus" gets its own pollution control device, a diesel particulate-matter filter.
Released on October 18th, this special-edition book is intended to be used by libraries, schools, state and local air programs, non-profit education and outreach campaigns, and for other targeted opportunities to increase awareness of the importance of reducing diesel emissions.
The books are free and can be ordered from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications, EPA’s publication warehouse. They may not be sold.
Quantities are limited due to the popularity of the book. Individuals, schools, and libraries may order up to 20 copies. Non-profit organizations working on diesel emissions issues and outreach may order up to 500. Other organizations, including for-profit companies, may order up to 100. Larger requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Real Magic School Bus Gets a Retrofit
Based on the magical yellow school bus of the "Magic School Bus" children's series, Scholastic operates a traveling science laboratory housed in a yellow school bus. The bus tours the United States, offering hands-on science lessons to children at schools, fairs, and other community events.
Similar to the story line in “The Magic School Bus Gets Cleaned Up,” this traveling bus was retrofitted with a diesel particulate filter. With the filter on the engine exhaust system, particulate matter will be reduced by up to 90%.
Scholastic's traveling magic school bus is equipped with a diesel particulate filter.
Undercarriage view of the diesel particulate filter installed on the traveling magic school bus. The filter was donated by Caterpillar.
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