Roughly 100 electric buses went to Michigan school districts earlier this year. Researchers are finding that investing in electric buses is reducing children’s exposure to air pollution and improving school attendance.
A recent study estimated that replacing the oldest school buses could lead to 1.3 million fewer daily absences across the country every year.
Sara Adar is an epidemiology professor at the University of Michigan and worked on the study. She said diesel emissions from old buses increase the risk of asthma and lung damage in children.
"This can be problematic because on these buses that have very high levels of pollution, kids can experience about half of their daily exposures to air pollution, just from riding to and from school," Adar said.
Adar added that school buses are still the safest way to get children to and from school, but districts should take advantage of funding to upgrade their fleet, especially buses that are more than seventeen years old.
Her research found districts that applied for federal funding for electric buses had better attendance rates and higher standardized test scores.
“What we found in that study was that the kids, while they were riding those cleaner buses, they had better lung health—so less inflammation in their lungs—and they were less likely to miss school or be absent than the times when they were on the dirtier buses,” she said.
