{"id":24373,"date":"2026-02-25T12:04:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/?p=24373"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:04:56","slug":"updated-national-school-bus-inspection-training-returns-to-stn-expo-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/updated-national-school-bus-inspection-training-returns-to-stn-expo-east\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATED: National School Bus Inspection Training Returns to STN EXPO East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The annual school bus inspection training that goes above and beyond state and federal Department of Transportation requirements brings back OEM training and looks to add post-crash inspection criteria in addition to hands-on detection of defects.<span id=\"more-90099\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Developed by school bus maintenance and inspection expert Marshall Casey for the South Carolina Department of Education, the in-depth training at <a href=\"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">STN EXPO East<\/a> starts with classroom instruction on Friday, March 27. The eight-hour training will also include a written exam on the National School Bus Training manual.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, <span class=\"TextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">participants <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW193334238 BCX8\">attend<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">\u00a0a morning maintenance software session sponsored by\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW193334238 BCX8\">Transfinder<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">. They will then be transported to a local school district in Charlotte, North Carolina for the hands-on training which<\/span><\/span> includes an overview of high-voltage school bus electrification followed by instruction on finding real defects on real school buses. Class attendees will learn how to avoid costly repairs with early detection, which also leads to less vehicle downtime and a more efficient school bus maintenance schedule in the garage.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">This year, inspection training participants will also participate in a competition. They will be split into three groups to identify defects hidden on three school buses. The f<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">astes<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW193334238 BCX8\">t group with the most identified defects wins prizes provided by the South Carolina Department of Education.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"National School Bus Inspection Training at STN EXPO East\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l5dqsz0N4w8?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\">Afterward, representatives of Blue Bird, IC Bus, RIDE and Thomas Built Buses will provide one-hour overview training on aspects of inspecting various components on their school buses.<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\">\u00a0Topics include inspection of a propane-<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW180273814 BCX8\">autogas<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\"> system, inspection of a wheelchair lift, an introduction to <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW180273814 BCX8\">CEEA+architecture<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\">\u00a0covering system layout, XMC inputs and outputs, CAN communication,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\">power<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW180273814 BCX8\">\u00a0and ground distribution and more.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW180273814 BCX8\" data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the inspection training is designed based on best practices from the South Carolina Department of Education, which operates the only state-owned and operated fleet in the country. The department\u2019s maintenance team, which serves as the hands-on inspection and classroom instructors at STN EXPO East, was recognized as one of the nation\u2019s top 10 <a href=\"https:\/\/stnonline.com\/digital-editions\/august-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Garage Stars last August<\/a> by <em>School Transportation News<\/em>. Participants of the training will be learning directly from some of these recognized student transportation professionals.<\/p>\n<p>School bus inspection training class size is limited to 50 participants to ensure the instructors will be able to provide a thorough training experience for everyone registered. Separate registration and fee are required to attend.<\/p>\n<p><em>Save $100 on conference registration by registering before Feb. 14. Find the full conference agenda, list of unique trainings and experiences, exhibitor lists, and hotel information at <a href=\"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stnexpo.com\/east<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attendees at the 2025 STN EXPO East National School Bus Inspection Training participated in OEM trainings and learned to identify defects at the Cabarrus County Schools garage in Concord, North Carolina (Photo courtesy of Lawson Mollica)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-5.png?fit=1392%2C783&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24375,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24373\/revisions\/24375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stnexpo.com\/east\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}