(No. 197 Decree of the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality was promulgated on January 6, 2023 and shall be put into force on March 1, 2023)

　　Article 1  These Rules are formulated in accordance with the Regulations on the Management of School Bus Safety, the Measures of Guangdong Province for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Management of School Bus Safety, the Regulations of Guangzhou Municipality on the Management of School Safety and other relevant laws and regulations, on the basis of the actual conditions of this Municipality and with a view to strengthening the management of school bus safety and ensuring the physical safety of students and children taking school buses.

　　Article 2  These Rules shall apply to the management activities related to school bus safety in the administrative areas of this Municipality.

　　The term “School Bus” herein refers to a passenger service vehicle with more than seven seats used for taking pre-school children and school children to school and bringing them back, as authorized by the license obtained in an administrative area of this Municipality according to law.

　　Article 3  Primary school students shall take the school bus designed for primary school students or the school bus designed for primary and middle school students. Middle school students shall take the school bus designed for primary and middle school students.

　　Kindergarten students shall be taken to the kindergarten and brought back by their guardians or the adults entrusted by them. The children whose guardians or the adults entrusted by them are unavailable due to special reasons shall all take the same school bus designed for kindergarten students.

　　Article 4  The municipal and district people’s governments shall take overall responsibility for the management of school bus safety in their respective administrative areas, and shall lead and organize all relevant government sectors to perform the management duties related to school bus safety.

　　The municipal and district people’s governments shall formulate and adjust the plans for the establishment of schools and kindergartens according to law, increase the supply of publicly maintained schools, and safeguard the enrollment of school students and preschool children in nearby schools and kindergartens, so as to reduce traffic risks to students in their school commuting.

　　The municipal and district people’s governments shall develop and improve the public transport in urban and rural areas to serve the students who require commuter services.

　　For rural areas where it is really difficult to ensure nearby schooling or public transport services for students’ commuting, the municipal and district people’s governments shall take measures to guarantee school bus services available to school students; for urban areas that can ensure nearby schooling and public transport services to meet the needs of students, design of school bus routes is not required.

　　Article 5  The municipal and district people’s governments shall establish a joint conference system in accordance with the provisions of the Regulations of Guangzhou Municipality on the Management of School Safety. The joint conference shall be responsible for coordinating major issues on the management of school bus safety, promoting interdepartmental cooperation, and organizing special law enforcement actions with joint efforts.

　　Article 6  The owners of school buses to be registered in the traffic authority refer to the schools or the school bus service providers. When applying for registration, the identity certificate of the school or the school bus service provider shall be provided. If no corresponding identity certificate is provided, registration procedures shall not be handled as required by law.

　　Article 7  A school or a school bus service provider applying for the school bus license shall, through the city-wide unified school bus license information platform according to law, submit the application documents to the education authority of the district where the school using the school bus is located for approval. If the application documents meet the requirements, the district education authority shall accept the application; if not, the application shall be returned to the original applicant within 3 working days from the date of receiving the application documents.

　　The district education authority shall, within 3 working days from the date of acceptance, submit the application documents to the municipal traffic authority and the district transportation authority for approval; if urban roads are involved, they shall also be submitted to the district road authority for approval.

　　The municipal traffic authority, the district transportation authority and the district road authority shall give a reply within 3 working days upon receipt of the application documents. The reply shall include the review comments on the school bus operation plan.

　　Except for taking and bringing back boarding students or driving on non-designated roads, the driving route of a school bus shall not cross districts, and no school bus stop may be set in the non-designated road sections. Where it is unavoidable that the driving route of the school bus needs to cross districts for the purpose of taking and bringing back boarding students or driving on non-designated roads, the district education authority that accepts the application shall also obtain approval from the education authorities in the other districts concerned. The latter shall then obtain approval from the transportation authorities in their respective districts and from the road authorities in their respective districts as appropriate.

　　The district transportation authority shall prepare, update and publish the directory of school bus stops in its jurisdiction, set school bus stop signs and delimit school bus parking spaces.

　　Article 8  The district education authority shall, within 5 working days after receiving the reply from the relevant authorities, give review comments and submit them to the district people’s government. The district people’s government shall then make decide whether to give approval within 5 working days from the date of receiving the review comments; if it decides to give approval, the valid term of the license shall be specified, provided that the maximum valid term of the school bus license shall not exceed 3 years.

　　The district people’s government may entrust the district education authority to decide whether to approve the school bus license.

　　Article 9  The traffic authority shall, within 3 working days from the date of receiving the approval decision of the school bus license granting authority, obtain the following information through the city-wide unified school bus license information platform and issue the school bus information label:

　　(1)Identity certificate of the owner of the motor vehicle;

　　(2)School bus driver’s motor vehicle driving license;

　　(3)Motor vehicle license;

　　(4)School bus license;

　　(5)The school bus operation plan approved by the school bus license granting authority, which includes the driving route, operating time, bus stops and other information required.

　　The school bus information label shall bear the number of the plate, owner, driver, driving route, operating time, bus stops, target school, valid term and the organ issuing the school bus information label, etc. Operating time includes operation frequency and specific operation hours. The valid term includes the validity period of school bus safety technology inspection and the expiration date of the school bus license.

　　Article 10 For applying to extend the valid term of the school bus license, the licensee shall submit an application more than 30 days in advance of the expiration of the valid term. The license granting authority shall make a decision on whether to grant the extension before the expiration of the valid term.

　　If case that there is no application for extension of the school bus license or the application has not been approved upon the expiration of its valid term, the original licensee shall return the school bus information label to the traffic authority within 5 days. The traffic authority shall notify the education authority of the withdrawal of the school bus information label.

　　Article 11 A school bus shall operate in accordance with the licensed items stated on the school bus information label. In case of any change in the contents of the school bus information label, an application for changing the school bus license shall be made in accordance with the provisions of Articles 7 and 8 herein, and the school bus information label shall be reissued upon approval of the license granting authority.

　　If the school bus cannot operate normally under any of the following circumstances, the school or school bus service provider may, after filing with the traffic authority, temporarily allocate other school buses that have obtained the school bus information labels or qualified school bus drivers on the same day, and use the original school bus information label:

　　(1)The school bus breaks down or is under repair;

　　(2)The school bus is subject to technical safety inspection;

　　(3)The school bus has a traffic accident or is detained due to traffic violation;

　　(4)The school bus driver is unable to drive the school bus due to illness or other reasons.

　　The traffic authority shall announce the method of accepting the filing within 30 days from the date of the issuance of these Rules.

　　Article 12 No one is allowed to use any vehicle without a school bus information label to provide school bus services.

　　No one is allowed to borrow, falsely use, embezzle, forge or falsify school bus information labels.

　　Article 13 A school bus shall undergo motor vehicle technical safety inspection every six months.

　　Where a school bus has passed the motor vehicle technical safety inspection, and the conditions of the school bus owner, driver, driving route, operating time, stops and other conditions required for obtaining the school bus license remain unchanged in the actual operation, the traffic authority shall directly issue a new school bus information label. If the above conditions for obtaining the school bus license change in actual operation, the school or the school bus service provider shall apply for changing the school bus license and go through formalities of the school bus information label anew in accordance with Article 11 herein.

　　For the school bus that has not obtained the certificate of motor vehicle technical safety inspection on time and is no longer qualified for obtaining the school bus license, the traffic authority shall withdraw the school bus information label and notify the license granting authority to cancel the school bus license.

　　Article 14 Schools and school bus service providers equipped with school buses shall establish a mature system for management of school bus safety in accordance with the relevant national, provincial and municipal regulations, be staffed with safety management personnel, strengthen the school bus safety maintenance, conduct safety education for school bus drivers at least three times each semester, and organize school bus drivers to learn laws and regulations on road traffic safety as well as knowledge on safety prevention, emergency response and rescue, so as to ensure the safety of students taking the school bus.

　　Article 15 A school bus shall be equipped with a driving recording device that monitors in real time the mechanical performance, electrical performance, driving route and driving speed of the school bus and the on-board personnel. Schools and school bus service providers shall conduct real-time supervision of school bus operation through the monitoring platform of school bus driving recording devices. The monitoring platform of the school bus driving recording devices shall be interconnected with the city-wide school bus dynamic information monitoring platform to realize real-time monitoring of vehicle conditions and route deviations. The monitoring record shall be kept for no less than 30 days; if any safety accident is involved, the monitoring records shall be kept for no less than 3 years.

　　The school shall inform the students’ guardians of the names and contact information on the school bus driver and attendant, as well as the operation information on the school bus’s departure and arrival time at each stop.

　　Article 16 Primary and middle schools and kindergartens shall establish an early warning and notification system of meteorological disasters. If the meteorological disaster warning signal takes effect on the way to take and bring back students, the school bus driver and the attendant shall seek a safe place nearby for shelter, protect the students on the school bus, and report the relevant situation to the school.

　　Article 17 The education authority shall regulate the management of school bus safety of schools, organize the preparation of the annual special report on the management of school bus safety, and report to the people’s government at the same level on the management of school bus safety in its administrative areas.

　　The transportation authority shall strengthen the examination of the road traffic conditions of the school bus driving routes during the review of the school bus license, and impose penalties on material violations of the enterprises that have obtained the road transport operation license according to law.

　　The traffic authority shall strengthen the examination of the traffic operation order of the school bus driving routes during the review of the school bus license; supervise and inspect the operation of school buses; investigate and punish violations of school buses detrimental to the road traffic safety according to law; and make a copy to its affiliation and education authorities the violations detrimental to the road traffic safety and traffic accident information of school bus drivers.

　　The authorities in charge of education, public security, transportation and emergency management shall, in accordance with relevant national, provincial and municipal regulations, fulfill their respective duties related to management of school bus safety, and establish a sound mechanism for sharing information on the management of school bus safety.

　　The authorities in charge of education, traffic and transportation shall jointly carry out school bus safety inspection on a regular basis. Schools or school bus service providers that repeatedly violate the provisions on management of school bus safety shall be included in the list of entities under key regulation and inspection.

　　Article 18 Where a school equipped with school buses or a school bus service provider violates the provisions on management of school bus safety, in addition to the administrative punishment imposed in accordance with the relevant regulations, the authorities in charge of education, public security, transportation and emergency management shall truthfully record the bad faith information and impose penalties according to law.

　　Where a school or a school bus service provider, in violation of the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 12, Article 14, and Paragraph 1 of Article 15 herein, uses a vehicle having not obtained a school bus information label to provide school bus services, fails to carry out safety maintenance on the school bus or fails to install real-time monitoring devices for the school bus, the traffic authority shall punish it in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Management of School Bus Safety.

　　Article 19 The management of school bus safety in schools for children from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and schools for children of foreigners in this Municipality shall be implemented with reference to these Rules.

　　Article 20 These Rules shall come into force on March 1, 2023.