WASHINGTON, D.C. – Federal transportation regulators are encouraging schools to install seat belts on school buses for all student passengers, marking a significant change in policy after years of advocating against them.

WFLA reports National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official Mark Rosekind announced over the weekend that the department plans to launch a new initiative to encourage schools to install three-point seat belts for students in all of the nation’s school buses.

“He says he will launch a series of steps designed to get belts in buses, including new research, funding and a nationwide mandate,” according to the news site.

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Rosekind said the NHTSA “has not always spoken with a clear voice on the issue of seat belts on school buses.” In the past, the department has argued that retrofitting buses with seat belts would be expensive, and highlighted the fact that buses are designed to transport students safely without a seat belt, NBC News reports.

“The position of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is that seat belts save lives,” Rosekind said. “That is true whether in a passenger car or in a big yellow school bus. And saving lives is what we are about. So NHTSA’s policy is that every child on every school bus should have a three-point seat belt.”

“Is this a change in position? Yes,” he said. “But it is consistent with NHTSA’s role as a guardian of safety on America’s roads. It is consistent with decades of progress in raising seat belts in the minds of the public from novelty to nuisance to ‘the car doesn’t move until I hear that click.’ Seat belts are icons of safety.”

The National Association for Pupil Transportation doesn’t necessarily agree, and it issued a statement about the NHTSA announcement calling on the federal government to leave the decision on bus seat belts up to local officials.

“Absent a federal requirement for belts, NAPT continues to agree with NHTSA that it is most appropriate if the decision to order seat belts on large school buses were left to the states and local jurisdictions,” the statement read, according to NBC.

“States and local school districts are better able to recognize and analyze school transportation risks particular to their areas and identify approaches to best manage and reduce those safety risks,” the statement continued. “Local officials are in the best position to decide whether to purchase seat belts, since these officials must weigh a multitude of unique considerations bearing on purchasing decision, especially when faced with budgetary constraints.”

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KXAN reports many folks in Houston called on officials to install seat belts in school buses after a recent crash that killed two students, while WFLA reports local residents are wary of the idea because a crash in Hillsborough County ended in the water and seat belts could have trapped students inside. Officials in Texas are also concerned about the increased cost of installing the belts, which they anticipate will be significant.

Six states currently require seat belts on large school buses, but in Florida older buses are not covered by the requirement.

Nationwide, a total of about 7,200 students are injured in bus crashes each year, and an average of about four die as a result, according to American Academy of Pediatrics statistics cited by WFLA.

A survey about school bus seat belts on the National Education Association union website shows most school bus drivers don’t think that buckling students into their seats is a good idea. It’s unclear when the union conducted the survey.

The NEA site detailed the chief complaints from bus drivers about installing belts for students:

Students can and do use the heavy belt buckles as weapons, injuring other riders.

It is next to impossible to make sure that all students keep their belts properly fastened, so that they are not injured by the belts in an accident.

If a bus has to be evacuated in an emergency, such as a fire, panicked or disoriented students might be trapped by their belts.

The NEA also highlighted the NHTSA’s previous position on seat belts, which stated “there is insufficient reason for a federal mandate for seat belts on large school buses.”

“School bus transportation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. We require all new school buses to meet safety requirements over and above those applying to all other passenger vehicles. These include requirements for improved emergency exits, roof structure, seating and fuel systems, and bus body joint integrity. These requirements help ensure that school buses are extremely safe,” a NHTSA statement read.

The NHTSA went on to explain that buses provide protection by “compartmentalization.” Put another way, “buses provide occupant protection so that children are protected without the need to buckle-up. Occupant crash protection is provided by a protective envelope consisting of strong, closely-spaced seats that have energy-absorbing seat backs,” according to the statement, which has since been removed from the NHTSA site.

The NHTSA’s shift in position comes after the agency investigated two fatal bus crashes in 2012, and convened a meeting with school bus industry professional this summer, School Transportation News reports.

At that meeting, National School Transportation Association officials urged the NHTSA to consider multiple options for improving bus safety beyond mandating belts in all buses.

“As an association, our greater concern lies in the student fatality rate in the danger zone area around the bus,” NSTA executive director Ronna Weber said. “We encourage NHTSA to consider all options for enhancing school bus passenger safety before deciding on one.”

Others, like Helena, Montana school transportation director Tom Cohn spoke to the cost of installing the belts in buses.

“There’s been a lot of discussion on how money should be spent and how much (seat belts) cost,” he said, adding that the Helena district added belts in 2012. “It cost us about seven cents a day through a five-year contract … which we thought was pretty cheap insurance for students.”