ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s automated school bus stop-arm camera program was billed as a commonsense safety measure to protect students.
But it has spun into a source of frustration for many drivers and a battleground over due process.
That has prompted state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, R-Bucks/Lehigh, to schedule a telephone town hall at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, to hear concerns over the program.
The town hall comes after surging citation totals in some districts, lengthy delays in the appeals process and disputes over transparency surrounding the system.
Coleman, a Republican whose district includes parts of Bucks and Lehigh counties, including parts of Allentown, said the problems have reached a point where legislative changes can no longer be avoided.
“There needs to be a fix,” Coleman said Thursday.
"We get to ask these tough questions, and if folks want to come out and hit us on these top line cheap attacks of like, 'Oh yeah, you're undermining kids' safety,' no one's doing that," he said.
"We can be an adult here and talk about it, because the risk of not talking about this is a system out there that is just fining people left and right with very little accountability and almost no due process afforded to folks. That's a problem."
A safety program under strain
Pennsylvania law allows school districts to contract with private vendors to install cameras on school buses that automatically record drivers who pass a bus with its stop arm extended.
Each violation carries a $300 fine.
Videos and photos of the incidents are reviewed by local police departments before citations are mailed to vehicle owners, and appeals are handled administratively through the state Department of Transportation rather than the courts.
School districts with programs in the Lehigh Valley include Allentown, Bethlehem Area, Catasauqua Area, Easton Area, Northampton Area, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern Lehigh, Salisbury and Wilson Area.
Reporting by LehighValleyNews.com showed stark disparities in citation numbers between these districts, raising questions about consistency and enforcement practices.
Drivers across the region also reported months-long — and in some cases more than year-long — waits for appeal decisions.
PennDOT acknowledged that it was grappling with an ever-growing backlog after responsibility for hearing appeals was shifted to it from district courts, particularly as the number of participating school districts in the state continues to rise.
PennDOT responded by recently expanding its hearing staff from eight to 12 full-time officers, plus a supervisor. And it planned to introduce a written-hearing option this month, according to Jennifer Kuntch, the agency’s deputy communications director.
Under that process, hearing officers will review video evidence and written submissions before issuing a determination letter, eliminating only the live video conference portion of the hearing, Kuntch said.
Coleman said the long delays for drivers to get a hearing cross a fundamental due process line.
“Waiting months, or waiting a year for a determination on a traffic citation is unacceptable,” he said.
The most recent Automated School Bus Enforcement annual report made public last week said motorists challenged 11.6% of all violations, or 8,849 tickets, in 2024. Of the challenges that reached a hearing, more than 42% were overturned by PennDOT hearing officers.
Fines for the year totaled $23.2 million, though only $13.7 million had been collected at the time the data was gathered.
A little more than $90,000 was reimbursed to PennDOT for hearing costs; a total of $1.6 million was returned to the 52 school entities statewide; and $9.5 million was returned to system administrators, with 50 of 52 under one vendor, BusPatrol LLC.
Appeals backlogs and a stalled fix
Concerns over the appeals process prompted Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, to introduce legislation last year aimed at repairing what she described as a broken system. Her proposal would impose a 30-day deadline for PennDOT to schedule appeal hearings, and would create a tiered system of fines.
Boscola argued that without reform, the law was failing both motorists and school districts, which must absorb administrative costs tied to contested citations, reimbursing PennDOT for the cost of appeal hearings.
“This rate per hearing was reviewed and adjusted by PennDOT, based on the time to prepare for, conduct, and render a decision for the informal hearings. An initial flat fee was assumed per hearing and adjusted as the year progressed,” the annual report said.
The fee was not disclosed.
Boscola’s bill was referred to committee and has not advanced, but Coleman said the issues it raised have only intensified as automated enforcement has expanded.
“If we’re going to offer people the right to appeal, then the system has to be able to hear those appeals,” he said.
Transparency fights and vendor oversight
Beyond appeals, the school bus camera program has been mired in disputes over access to public records.
Last year, LehighValleyNews.com detailed a series of right-to-know battles involving Allentown’s contract with BusPatrol.
State agencies ultimately ordered the release of the contract and related financial records, rejecting claims that the documents were exempt from disclosure. BusPatrol appealed those rulings before later dropping its challenge, clearing the way for the records to become public.
Coleman said the school bus camera system differs sharply from other automated enforcement programs, such as red-light and work-zone speed cameras, where enforcement authority, reporting requirements and vendor roles are more clearly defined and separated.
Join the town hall
Coleman said the upcoming telephone town hall, which will also touch on the new school weapon incident notification law, is intended to give people a direct opportunity to describe their experiences with the school bus automated enforcement program as lawmakers consider next steps.
“I want to hear directly from constituents,” he said. “Their experiences should inform what, if anything, we change going forward.”
Coleman said about 80,000 residents within the boundaries of his district will be called automatically based on a targeted phone list, but others interested in participating also can dial 877-229-8493. The entry code is 122165.
To ensure everyone who wants to participate can do so, people also can sign up at https://www.senatorcoleman/access-live.
Those who register through the website will receive a call at the time of the event to participate. Those who want to take part in the call should stay on the line and will be automatically connected to the call.
Participants also can choose to audio stream the event live via a smartphone or computer.
