COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Gov. Mike DeWine was joined by members of the state-created school bus safety working group to share recommendations on how to better protect students, bus drivers, and others sharing the road.

After five months of meetings, the group presented 17 recommendations.

Among those recommendations were driver retention, school bus safety features, road safety, emergency response, and commercial bus usage.

The recommendations include increasing the number of hours of advanced training required at no cost to the district as well as creating funding from the state that schools can use to modify their current fleet to meet the suggested bus safety recommendations outlined by the group.

“After hearing from the experts, hearing from the bus drivers, looking at the data — or the lack of data — from states that had mandated seatbelts and listening to school districts that had tried pilot programs on their buses, we became convinced that a statewide mandate of seatbelts is not the most effective uses to keep our kids safe,” Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said.

The use of seatbelts on buses is currently made at the district level.