BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Pennsylvania school districts issued more than 76,000 stop-arm violations in 2024 through automated school bus cameras, generating over $23 million in fines, according to an annual report from the state Department of Transportation.
The report was released Friday, days after its statutory deadline — and only after LehighValleyNews.com began questioning lawmakers about why it had not been made public.
The report, mandated under Act 19 of 2023 and due to leaders of the House and Senate Transportation committees by Dec. 31, marks the first year school entities were legally required to submit operational data about their Automated School Bus Enforcement programs.
Schools must turn over data for the report no later than July 1.
PennDOT released the report Friday after inquiries were sent to lawmakers regarding the report’s status and delayed public release.
Local compliance lags despite state reporting
PennDOT said all known school districts with active programs ultimately provided information for the statewide report following repeated outreach.
Of the 76,413 violations issued statewide, more than 6,200 occurred in school districts across the Lehigh Valley.
But while the state’s filing of the annual report allows the public to independently assess how the program is functioning statewide, questions remain about whether school districts are meeting their own legal obligations under the law, particularly requirements intended to ensure transparency at the local level.
Act 19, born out of Senate Bill 851, requires each school district operating an automated enforcement program to post annual reports and related data on a publicly accessible website maintained by the district or its system administrator.
A review of participating school district websites across the Lehigh Valley found no publicly available annual reports or corresponding data, despite explicit statutory language requiring public disclosure.
School districts with ASBE programs in the Lehigh Valley listed in the report include Allentown, Bethlehem Area, Catasauqua Area, Easton Area, Northampton Area, Northern Lehigh, Northwestern Lehigh, Salisbury and Wilson Area.
Prior reporting raised oversight and transparency concerns
Over the past year, LehighValleyNews.com has published multiple stories examining the rollout and use of school bus stop-arm cameras in Allentown and surrounding districts.
That reporting raised questions from residents about oversight, consistency and profit motives behind the program and came during a months-long effort to obtain records through Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know law.
It showed that while thousands of citations continued to be issued and paid, the infrastructure required to handle contested violations lagged significantly behind the program’s rapid expansion, leaving many drivers in limbo.
Each $300 ticket issued for illegally passing a stopped school bus includes two fixed surcharges: $25 for the School Bus Safety Grant Fund and $25 for the local police department. The remaining $250 is split between the school district and its contracted vendor.
But the report acknowledged that for the first time in the calendar year 2024, school entities also were responsible for reimbursement to 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 report said.
Without that information being released, nor websites maintained and updated by individual districts, the public has no clear accounting of the program, instead relying on a dataset more than a year old.
That lack of transparency is particularly notable given the role of private vendors — most prominently BusPatrol LLC — which contract with school districts to install and operate the camera systems in exchange for a substantial share of citation revenue.
“The program differs from other existing automated enforcement efforts within the Commonwealth in that primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the programs lay with the school entity and their system administrator partners,” the report states.
PennDOT emphasized that all districts with active programs ultimately submitted data for the annual report. However, the agency acknowledged it does not independently verify the information, which is reported “as-is” by each school entity.
"The program differs from other existing automated enforcement efforts within the Commonwealth in that primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the programs lay with the school entity and their system administrator partners."2024 ASBE Report
Previously, BusPatrol representatives directed LehighValleyNews.com to https://buspatrol.com/pennsylvania/ for the links and data used to compile the annual report. As of Jan. 2, the site had not been updated to reflect the current number of school districts using BusPatrol technology, and many webpage links the company said were publicly available were still missing.
Violations surge as program rapidly expands
According to the report, 3,828 school buses statewide were equipped with stop-arm cameras in 2024 — a 116% increase from the prior year. Those cameras captured 76,413 violations, with 22 districts issuing more than 1,000 tickets each.
Fines totaled $23.2 million, though only $13.7 million had been collected at the time of reporting.
The statewide financial breakdown included:
- $23,205,974 in total fines imposed
- $13,684,662 in total fines collected
- $1,073,294 returned to local police agencies
- $1,131,125 to the School Bus Safety Grant Program
- $90,366 reimbursed to PennDOT for hearing costs
- $1,675,652 returned to school entities
- $9,572,517 total funds returned to system administrators
The report stated that 50 of the 52 known active programs were contracted to a single turnkey vendor providing full administrative services — BusPatrol.
Thousands of citations challenged — many overturned
Motorists challenged 11.6% of all violations, or 8,849 tickets, according to the report. Of the challenges that reached a hearing, more than 42% were overturned by PennDOT hearing officers.
At the end of 2024, approximately 6,500 challenges remained unresolved, underscoring the administrative strain created by the program’s rapid expansion.
The 2024 calendar year marked the first time PennDOT — rather than local courts — handled the appeals process, following legislative changes intended to standardize enforcement statewide.
After the transition, the volume of contested violations quickly outpaced the agency’s capacity to conduct hearings. In practice, vehicle owners who exercised their right to appeal often faced lengthy delays or had hearings that were never scheduled throughout 2025.
State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton/Lehigh, introduced legislation aimed at addressing those delays by modifying the hearing structure, though the proposal has not advanced out of committee.
PennDOT has since expanded its hearing staff from eight to 12 full-time officers, plus a supervisor, and plans to introduce a written-hearing option this month, according to Jennifer Kuntch, the agency’s deputy communications director.
Under the new 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.
What comes next
PennDOT expects participation in the program to continue to grow, with additional districts already launching enforcement in 2025.
LehighValleyNews.com previously reported that across Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, more than 19,500 citations were issued between September 2024 and October 2025. Roughly half were paid, and about 11% were contested.
As the program expands, questions remain about whether oversight is keeping pace — and whether districts are meeting not just reporting deadlines, but the law’s broader transparency and accountability requirements.
When asked about the report's delayed release and school district compliance concerns raised by LehighValleyNews.com, a spokesperson for state Sen. Nick Miller, D-Lehigh/Northampton, said the senator was “not able to provide a comment.”
Miller is a member of the Senate Transportation Committee.
“If the law’s public oversight requirements are not met, the public is left with no ability to gauge the appropriateness and effectiveness of the stop-arm program, and that’s a problem."Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association
A state open records advocate noted the need for public scrutiny.
“The annual reports and postings serve important public oversight and accountability functions, allowing Pennsylvanians to gauge how the system is working and whether changes are necessary,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
“If the law’s public oversight requirements are not met, the public is left with no ability to gauge the appropriateness and effectiveness of the stop-arm program, and that’s a problem.
“The law is intended to keep children safe, and the lack of accountability makes it difficult to determine if that important goal is being met. It is also worth noting that the law does not appear to impose a penalty for non-compliance, which makes enforcement difficult at best — an issue legislators may want to address," she said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: After publication of this article, the Salisbury Township School District posted its 2024-25 annual report to the school bus safety pageof the district’s website. The report was shared before that through the district's December community update, according to Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten. The district reported a 26% decrease in the number of motorists illegally passing stopped school buses during the 2025 back-to-school season compared to the same time period the previous year.
Where did the money go?
Here's how school districts responded when asked about use of revenues from the program:
Allentown School District: Any revenue was used to pay technology fee to BusPatrol
Bethlehem Area School District: Additional video and safety equipment installed in the buses.
Catasauqua Area School District: All revenues have been used to pay for Transfinder and Zonar software programs.
Easton Area School District: No response provided.
Northampton Area School District: Revenue received from the ASBE program was allocated to the technology fee for Bus Patrol. Any remainder will be applied to the safety and security department.
Northern Lehigh: Revenue generated will be used to offset costs incurred by our Police Department.
Northwestern Lehigh: The district used the revenues to support safety and security programs district-wide
Salisbury Township: Salisbury Township School District did not receive any revenues during 2024.
Wilson Area School District: The district uses the money collected through violations to offset the cost of the bus arm camera installation as well as additional exterior bus cameras. These cameras have been
instrumental in several situations where safety of our students was jeopardized by other vehicles.
