Virginia School District Expands Bus
Camera Program With Buspatrol
To Stop Illegal Passings And Keep Kids Safe

CCPS Division Superintendent Dr. Tony Brads said, “With the support of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the County Attorney, Culpeper County Public Schools has been a leader in the Commonwealth in terms of protecting our students by being one of the first school divisions to deploy stop arm cameras.”

The safety program will see school buses in CCPS modernized with advanced safety technology, including AI-powered cameras to capture the license plates of vehicles that violate school bus stopping laws. The technology, installation, and maintenance are provided at no cost to the school district or taxpayer through BusPatrol’s violator-funded program.

Kate Spree, a spokesperson for BusPatrol, said: “Every day, thousands of motorists illegally pass stopped school buses, with zero thought to the children whose lives they put at risk. We are proud to join forces with Culpeper County Public Schools to help make roads safer for students.”

The CCPS program started with a pilot program in 2018 that only included a few buses. “Our small-scale program served as a deterrent to stop arm violations however, violations proved to be problematic on many other bus routes. This expansion of our bus camera program with BusPatrol greatly increases coverage and consistency for the overall safety of our students and adds a level of reassurance for all our drivers,” Dr. Brads explained.

The fleetwide implementation should be complete in May 2023.

In conjunction with the expansion, CCPS has developed a bus safety page on the website and is launching a public awareness campaign to educate motorists about school bus safety laws. The CCPS Bus Safety webpage can be found at https://www.culpeperschools.org/o/ccps/page/bus-safety or by clicking on Bus Safety in the “Community Links” section at the bottom of the main CCPS page.

Other Virginia school divisions who partner with BusPatrol are Gloucester County Public Schools, Newport News Public Schools, and Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools.

According to Virginia DMV, drivers must: