Buses play a key role in student transport by transporting students to and from school. They often have a high seating capacity and a high degree of safety compared to other modes of transportation. The use of buses in student transport varies worldwide, and may take the form of the use of public transportation by students, transit buses set aside to transport students, or purpose-built school buses owned and operated by school systems or contractors.

Yellow school buses are most commonly associated with North America, where federal and state/provincial regulations have influenced their design characteristics, including its yellow color. When loading or unloading students, yellow school buses are given traffic priority. Their red warning lights and stop signs allow them to stop traffic.

Asia China

In China, purpose-built vehicles for transporting schoolchildren are not commonly used. The earliest professional school bus in China appeared in October 2008. Compared with many developed countries, Chinese schools have a relatively short history of providing transportation services. It was not until 1990 that the first private schools began to offer bus services.

Due to a lack of buses, it is common for buses to be overloaded with schoolchildren. According to a 2011 article by Beijing Evening News, there are around 90 million students in China who need to ride school buses, which amounts to requiring over 1 million legally safe school buses. However, in 2010, the number of safe school buses just eclipsed 10,000, far below the recommended threshold. Consequently, accidents happen frequently, and 18,000 children die from traffic accidents every year. Furthermore, legally safe school buses that are manufactured in China are largely exported and rarely seen in China, further contributing to a lack of supply of safe school buses.

The frequency of school bus-involved traffic accidents has raised concerns throughout China. In 2011, 41 primary and middle school students were killed in school bus accidents, including a collision between a kindergarten bus and a coal van in Gansu province. The nine-seat minibus was carrying 64 people: the driver, a teacher, and 62 children. Both adults and 19 children were killed, and all surviving 43 students were injured. Following this, 15 children were killed when a school bus overturned into a ditch in Jiangsu province. In a third incident, two schoolchildren were killed and 20 injured when a carriage carrying students collided with a truck in Yunnan province. Three days later, in Yunnan province, five junior high school students were killed when a bus fell off a cliff.

Legislation On September 1, 2007, the national standards committee issued a national standardization amendment titled "Motor Vehicle Operation Safety Technical Conditions". China began to implement the school bus operation mandatory standards. The same day, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and ten other committees jointly issued the implementation of the "Primary and Secondary School Students Kindergarten Safety Management Office Law". Between September 1, 2007, and September 31, 2010, the Ministry of Public Security, in accordance with the Motor Vehicle Operation Safety Technical Conditions amendment, carried out school bus operations in various areas of the country. The social demand of school buses has attracted attention from all levels of government. The related management departments have been in the process of researching and discussing the most feasible ways to develop school bus industrialization in China.

In the twelfth Chinese five-year plan (2011–2015), the State Administration of Work Safety stressed the need to establish and improve the legal and safety management systems of school buses, clarify the right of way for school buses, strengthen the supervision of school buses, and ensure the safety of school buses. Each school bus must have satellite positioning and speed-limit devices installed.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has released the following safety guidelines for school buses: School bus appearance: School buses are uniformly marked with eye-catching colors (e.g. yellow) and can be equipped with warning lights and sirens. Inside the school bus: School bus safety regulations are higher than ordinary vehicles (e.g. anti-collision). GPS and real-time monitoring systems of the vehicle's running routes and speed are to be installed. A speed limiter should also be implemented to prevent speeding. The upper and lower doors are to be equipped with cameras to monitor personnel in real time. Buses are to be equipped with emergency hammers. Crew: Drivers must have professional licenses and conduct regular spot checks. If there are issues, including driving violations, they should be corrected in a timely manner. The organization of training is mandated, and repeat offenders should be disqualified from driving school buses. Vehicles should be strictly restricted and one or more teachers should be assigned to maintain order. Right of way: The school bus has the same right of way as a conventional bus. In case of emergency, the use of lights and alarms is required.

Models Some Chinese bus manufacturers have developed school bus models to be purchased by Chinese schools. Yutong, for example, designed the ZK6100DA model, which was described as a "big-nose school bus" with a "classic western-style appearance" and "the highest safety rating of all school bus products in China" in a 2011 China Daily article. FAW Bus and Coach has developed a similar model, the CA6750, which can hold 37 students. In addition to large school buses, minibuses are produced by various manufacturers. Chengdu Automobile Factory produces the "Chendu School bus", and Maxus produces the "Maxus V80 School bus". The models can hold 24 and 16 students, respectively.

In February 2012, the potential of American-imported school buses was explored as several American manufacturers, including Blue Bird Corporation and Navistar International, displayed buses at the Beijing International School Bus Exhibition.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, younger students are transported between their homes and schools by "nanny vans". These vehicles are typically van-based and are smaller than a minibus. When nanny vans originated, they were regulated primarily by the schools and the van drivers. Today, in the interest of safety, nanny vans are government-regulated vehicles that run on fixed routes, and most of schools use coaches for school bus instead of nanny vans.

Japan

Usages In Japan, the usage rate of school buses is relatively low. According to a 2008 survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), school buses had been introduced in 62.7% of municipalities nationwide (meaning at least one school within each of those municipalities, not 62.7% of all schools in Japan). At that time, approximately 180,000 elementary and junior high school students, or about 1.7% of the total, were using school buses.

The survey found that the proportion of municipalities implementing school buses was higher in prefectures with low population density, such as Niigata and Yamagata, and lower in major metropolitan areas like Tokyo and Kanagawa. It was also estimated that many of the 180,000 students using school buses were attending in depopulated or remote areas. In such regions, the distance between students’ homes and their schools is often considerable, and in mountainous areas, the roads can be particularly steep or difficult. In northern regions such as Hokkaido, snowfall during the winter can make walking to school extremely difficult.

As noted above, school bus usage in elementary and junior high schools is generally low in Japan. Particularly in public schools, the vast majority of students walk to school. Private elementary and junior high schools are fewer in number and are often located farther from students’ homes, so students are more likely to use trains, public transit buses, or school buses (typically operated between the school and the nearest train station). In high school, both public and private, it becomes more common for students to commute by train, public transit bus, or bicycle rather than on foot, and many private high schools operate school buses. This trend also applies to universities. School buses are also relatively common at kindergartens and nursery schools.

In addition, school buses are sometimes operated by for students requiring assistance with transportation, by international schools (such as Brazilian schools), and even by driving schools, fitness clubs, and cram schools.

As expected, school buses in Japan are generally off-limits to outsiders. However, some schools allow visitors to use the school bus from the nearest railway station when they have official reasons to visit the campus—such as for open campus events at universities or private high schools, school tours, cultural festivals, or entrance examinations.

In Japan, there is no standardized body color that identifies a school bus—such as the yellow in the United States—and their appearance is typically not very different from regular transit buses. However, some private kindergartens operate school buses customized with "cute" designs featuring anime characters or animals for promotional purposes.

Operations School buses for public schools are operated by local governments, whereas those for private schools (including kindergartens) are operated by the respective school corporations.

In terms of actual operation, there are two main models: one is where the school or local authority owns and operates the bus directly as a legal private-use vehicle; the other involves outsourcing operations to bus or taxi companies, under licensing systems such as the (), or the (), as defined under Article 3 of . Originally, school bus operations were conducted exclusively under the designated-use system, but a revision to a law in 2014 made it legally possible to operate school buses using chartered buses as well.

In the case of privately owned school buses, the vehicles are maintained and managed by the school or local authority itself, and drivers are also directly employed (though sometimes dispatched from agencies). Since these are considered private-use vehicles, their license plates are white, and they can be operated with a Class 1 (private) large or medium vehicle license. However, some schools have internal employment rules requiring drivers to hold a Class 2 (professional) large vehicle license.

When operated under the form of designated-use transport, the vehicles are owned by a licensed bus company. However, the name of the contracting school is typically prominently displayed on the vehicle, while the name of the bus company is often shown only in a small font, usually in a corner of the vehicle body. The license plates in this case are green, indicating commercial-use vehicles (similar to those of public transit buses or sightseeing coaches), and the buses are classified as such. The drivers must hold a Class 2 large vehicle license. These buses are also allowed to use dedicated or priority bus lanes, just like standard transit buses.

In some cases, transit bus companies operate buses for students between nearby railway stations and schools. In such instances, fares are typically the same as regular transit buses, sometimes slightly discounted, or even free of charge. These buses are operated under the license (i.e., as regular transit buses) and are generally considered distinct from the school buses described earlier.