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Love the Bus Month

A February appreciation observance recognizing school bus drivers and the role of the yellow school bus in the United States.

Monday
1–28
February 2027
Last updated February 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team
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YEARLY DATEAll of February
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYSchool
SUBCATEGORYStudent Life
ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
American School Bus Council
FIRST OBSERVED
2007
“It started as a way to say thank you, and the calendar gave it a whole month.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The thank-you note that became a month

Love the Bus was launched in 2007 by the American School Bus Council, a coalition of school transportation associations and companies, as a national campaign to thank the people who drive the yellow bus. It grew into a month-long February observance and is now run each year by the National Association for Pupil Transportation, which issues the annual campaign toolkit.

View Official Announcementvia National Association for Pupil Transportation
INTRO

The biggest bus fleet nobody counts

Add up every city subway, every commuter rail line, every public bus route in the United States, and one operation still carries more riders than all of them. It is yellow, it runs twice a day, and it knocks off for the summer. Roughly 480,000 school buses move more than 25 million children to and from class on a normal school day.

Love the Bus Month is February's thank-you to the people behind the wheel of that fleet. It is a celebratory appreciation campaign, observed across the United States for all of February, and it points at a job most families only notice on the morning the bus does not come.

The pitch is simple and a little stubborn. The most ordinary vehicle in American life is also one of the safest, and the person driving it has 30 or 40 kids in the mirror before most of us have finished our coffee.

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ORIGINS

Love the Bus Month history

CHAPTER 01

A campaign built on a coalition

Love the Bus did not come from a city hall or an act of Congress. It came from an industry deciding to speak up for itself. In 2007 the American School Bus Council, a coalition of school transportation groups and companies, started the campaign to put a spotlight on drivers.

The timing was deliberate. February is the month of valentines, so the council leaned in: interactive valentines for drivers, a prompt to share a story about a favorite one. The affection was the point. So was the visibility.

CHAPTER 02

The bus that parked on Capitol Hill

The first year had a stunt with a purpose. As part of the 2007 kickoff, the council ran school bus tours on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress could climb aboard a current model and see it up close.

A lawmaker standing inside an empty bus is an easy image to miss the meaning of. The council's argument was that the people who fill it every day, the drivers, rarely get the same attention as the machine itself.

CHAPTER 03

From one council to the whole industry

The campaign outgrew its founder. The American School Bus Council that started it is now described by trade press as a defunct coalition, but the idea did not stop. The National Association for Pupil Transportation now runs Love the Bus, releasing a fresh campaign toolkit each year.

What began as a single February push has become a year-round effort with a February anchor. States layered their own programs on top, and in many of them a more specific driver-appreciation week now sits inside the month.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The campaign launches

The American School Bus Council starts Love the Bus, with a February kickoff that includes school bus tours on Capitol Hill.

States run their own

Individual states stage their own Love the Bus programs, with North Carolina among those documenting a full slate of February events.

An annual fixture

Love the Bus continues as an established February campaign, with state-level celebrations returning each year.

A week inside the month

North Carolina pairs Love the Bus Month with a designated mid-February School Bus Driver Appreciation Week, a model several states follow.

A new steward

The National Association for Pupil Transportation releases the 2025 Love the Bus toolkit, signaling its stewardship of the campaign.

Year-round focus

NAPT launches the 2026 campaign and toolkit, framing February as the start of a year-round focus on school transportation.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love Love the Bus Month

Recognition

The driver is trusted with everyone's children and noticed by almost no one.

The campaign exists because the job is easy to overlook. A driver is handed the safety of a busload of other people's children, twice a day, and is usually thanked only when something goes wrong. Love the Bus was built to flip that, putting names and faces to a workforce most riders never think about.

Safety

The numbers behind the reputation

The reputation is earned, not assumed. NHTSA calls the school bus one of the safest vehicles on the road, with less than 1% of all U.S. traffic fatalities involving children on school transportation. The campaign's job is to keep that record from being taken for granted.

Contrast

Safer than the family car

The gap shows up in the hardest figures. On average about six student passengers die in school bus crashes a year, against roughly 2,000 children killed in other motor-vehicle crashes annually, per NHTSA data. That contrast is the case the month quietly makes for the driver.

BY THE NUMBERS

Love the Bus Month by the Numbers

~480,000
School buses in daily use
25M+
Children bused to school each day
<1%
US traffic deaths on school transport
119
School-transport occupant deaths, 2015-2024
2007
Year ASBC started the campaign
'Love the Bus' is our way of saying 'thank you' to the drivers who not only keep our children safe, but also serve as role models, mentors and friends to schoolchildren across the country.
Pete JapikseCo-director, American School Bus Council

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about Love the Bus Month

It is the largest transit system you never call one

Measured by daily riders, the school bus fleet moves more children than every U.S. public transit network combined, yet it almost never gets counted as mass transit.

The fatality count is still falling

School-transportation-related traffic deaths dropped about 14% in a single year, from 128 in 2023 to 110 in 2024, according to NHTSA crash data, even as tens of millions of children kept riding.

February was chosen for the valentines

The month is not an accident of scheduling. The campaign launched around Valentine's Day and handed out interactive valentines for drivers, tying the thank-you to the calendar's most affectionate week.

Congress took a bus tour

The 2007 kickoff parked a current-model school bus on Capitol Hill so members of Congress could board it, turning a routine vehicle into a lobbying prop for the people who drive it.

Less than one percent

Across all traffic deaths in the United States, fewer than one in a hundred involve a child on a school transportation vehicle, the statistic that anchors the bus's safety reputation.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

How to Celebrate Love the Bus Month

Use the official toolkit

NAPT publishes a free Love the Bus campaign guide each year with graphics, certificates, and ideas, so a school does not have to invent its own from scratch.

Write the driver a note

The original campaign handed out valentines for drivers. A thank-you card from a rider, taped to the dash or handed up at the steps, is the most direct version of the gesture.

Wear the color

Districts run dress-yellow days where the whole transportation team shows up in bus-colored shirts. It is a low-effort way to make an invisible job visible for a morning.

Tour a bus

Ask a local district about a bus tour, the same idea the 2007 campaign used on Capitol Hill. Seeing the stop-arm, mirrors, and seat design up close explains why the vehicle is built the way it is.

Name a driver of the month

Many districts use February to spotlight a single driver by name. Nominating one, or thanking yours out loud, turns a fleet statistic back into a person.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Love the Bus Month?

1 / 7

Who created the Love the Bus campaign?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial appreciation campaign, not a public holiday, so schools and offices stay open. It started as an industry campaign rather than a government proclamation.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

8sources
4primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration2025
School Bus Safety
The school bus called one of the safest vehicles on the road, with less than 1% of traffic deaths and 2015-2024 occupant counts.
View source
National Association for Pupil Transportation2026
NAPT Launches 2026 Love the Bus Campaign and Toolkit
The current steward's announcement of the February campaign and its annual digital toolkit.
View source
American School Bus Council
American School Bus Council Partnership
Figures for the fleet: about 480,000 buses moving more than 25 million children each school day.
View source
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Planning for Safety
States that riding a school bus remains the safest way to travel to school.
View source
Additional coverage
NC School Bus Safety2007
American School Bus Council Celebrates Love the Bus
The 2007 launch, the Capitol Hill bus tours, and ASBC co-directors thanking drivers in their own words.
View source
School Bus Fleet
Why We Love the Bus & 10 Tips to Celebrate This Month
Notes the 2007 ASBC origin and the now-defunct coalition, plus concrete ways districts celebrate.
View source
National Conference of State Legislatures2025
School Bus Safety
NHTSA contrast of about six student bus deaths a year against roughly 2,000 child motor-vehicle deaths.
View source
NC Department of Public Instruction2017
February is Love the Bus Month; School Bus Driver Appreciation Week
A state pairing Love the Bus Month with a designated mid-February driver-appreciation week.
View source
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