The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US

Editor’s Note: This article was updated with new findings as of June 2026 from WRI’s Electric School Bus Data Dashboard, which is updated monthly and contains the most recent data on electric school bus adoption. Previous versions of this article are available for download at the bottom of this page.

Key takeaways:

• More than 8,500 electric school buses are now operating in communities across every region of the United States, up from just over 5,100 at the same time last year.
• Of the school districts with electric buses, nearly one in four has already purchased additional buses, demonstrating satisfaction and confidence in the technology.
• School districts with electric school buses are evenly split between congressional districts represented by Democrats and Republicans, underscoring the bipartisan nature of electric school bus demand.

A Cleaner, Smoother Ride for Students

Despite federal policy uncertainty, the transition to electric school buses continues to progress across the country, according to the latest data from WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative. 

Electric school bus deliveries from rounds 2 and 3 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program (the largest source of funding for electric school buses in the country) accelerated through 2025 and the first half of 2026, pushing the number of electric school buses operating nationwide to more than 8,500. Approximately 60% of all committed electric school buses are now in service, transporting more than 380,000 students each day—nearly double the number served in 2023. 

As of June 30, 2026, there were 14,146 committed electric school buses across 49 states, Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and more than 20 Tribal Nations. These commitments include buses that have been awarded funding, ordered, delivered or placed into service.

The number of school districts transitioning away from fossil fuels has also grown dramatically. In 2020, only 303 school districts, serving more than 4.8 million students, had committed to at least one electric school bus. By mid-2026, that number had increased more than fivefold to 1,560 school districts serving over 15 million students.

And more buses are on the way. Electric school bus sales reached a record high in 2025, accounting for an estimated 7% of all new school bus sales—roughly equivalent to the share of electric passenger vehicle sales—and growing electric school buses' share of the national fleet to approximately 3%. 

The adoption of electric school buses began with the recognition of the health and environmental harms associated with diesel emissions — especially for children, whose developing lungs are more susceptible to the dangers of air pollution.

For decades, diesel-burning fleets have been the default option for transporting the 21 million students who ride the bus to school every day in the U.S. students, putting their health at risk. Diesel exhaust pollution is a known carcinogen, with proven links to serious physical health issues as well as cognitive development impacts.

As a result, many school districts have shifted over the past decade toward the healthier alternative. With zero tailpipe emissions, electric school buses eliminate direct exposure to harmful pollutants for both students and drivers, while also offering a quieter, smoother ride.

Electric School Buses in Every Corner of the Country

More than 8,500 electric school buses are now operating in communities across every region of the United States, up from just over 5,100 at the same time last year. 

California leads the nation with 2,265 operating buses, followed by New York (559), Maryland (362), Virginia (345) and Illinois (331). 

While these states account for many deployments, electric school buses are becoming increasingly common nationwide. States across the South, Pacific Northwest, and Midwest each have hundreds of buses in operation, including South Carolina (199), Washington (190), Oregon (192), Michigan (262), Missouri (133) and Mississippi (103). This broad geographic distribution demonstrates that electric school buses are operating successfully in diverse climates, terrains, and transportation systems.

School Districts Are Leading the Transition

Of the school districts with electric buses, nearly one in four has already purchased additional buses, demonstrating satisfaction and confidence in the buses and the technology after their initial deployments.

A growing number of districts have also now fully electrified their school bus fleets. These range from large urban fleets, such as Oakland Unified School District in California (74 electric buses and the first major U.S. city school district to fully transition its fleet) to suburban districts like Branford Public Schools in Connecticut (46 buses and the largest fully electric school bus fleet in the Northeast). Full fleet electrification is also occurring in smaller communities with districts of around 1,000 students, including Steelton-Highspire School District in central Pennsylvania (six buses) and McKinleyville Union School District in California (four buses) near Redwood National Park.

Districts are also reporting tangible operational benefits after making the switch. During the 2024–2025 school year, Shawnee Public Schools in Oklahoma saved more than $40,900 in fuel costs by operating eight electric school buses, with additional savings expected from reduced maintenance needs and cutting down their electricity bill with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. The district has also reported improvements in the student experience. Drivers observed noticeably better student behavior on electric buses compared with the diesel buses previously assigned to the same routes, and reported behavioral incidents on those routes declined by nearly 50% between the 2022–2023 and 2024–2025 school years.

Protecting Vulnerable Students From Harmful Pollution

A key motivation for school bus electrification at the district level is the removal of harmful diesel exhaust and the opportunity to prioritize those most impacted by on-road air pollution.

Exposure to diesel exhaust pollution can lead to missed school days, hurting students’ academic progress. In fact, studies show that reducing students’ exposure to air pollution from school buses increases student test scores.

But the impact on academic achievement due to diesel school buses is not equal. Research finds that the most polluting buses in the U.S. fleet—older diesel buses that lack modern emissions reduction technology—are disproportionately concentrated in school districts with higher shares of low-income households and residents of color.

The U.S. education system has a long history of achievement gaps based on a student’s race or ethnicity. Communities of color and low-income populations are exposed to higher levels of air pollution due to decades of racist policies, including redlining and inequitable infrastructure planning. When it comes to school transportation, these trends continue: Black students, students with disabilities and low-income students all rely on school buses more than others, exposing them to more diesel exhaust pollution. 

Today, we can see some promising progress toward countering those trends, as 86% of committed electric school buses are located in districts with the highest shares of people of color and 62% are in districts with the highest shares of low-income households. 

To further better understand whether electric school buses are reaching students who stand to benefit the most, WRI identified 1,508 Priority Outreach Districts based on four indicators of inequity: household income, race and ethnicity, air pollution burden (PM2.5 or ozone), and Tribal status. Districts were classified as a priority if they were a Tribal school district or if they ranked in the top national quartile in all three of these indicators: poverty, racial and ethnic diversity, and air pollution.
 
As of June 2026, 236 Priority Outreach Districts had committed more than 3,400 electric school buses, representing nearly one-quarter of all electric school buses committed nationwide. Because these communities experience disproportionately high levels of diesel pollution and socioeconomic disadvantage, transitioning to electric school buses has the potential to deliver especially meaningful health and environmental benefits for students.

In recent years, funding policies at the state and federal levels have prioritized communities disproportionately affected by diesel school bus pollution; these policies are successfully directing electric school buses to students who stand to benefit the most. It will be important for all funding programs to continue prioritizing pollution-burdened communities to ensure the benefits of electric school buses are distributed equitably.

Electric School Buses Are a Bipartisan Approach to Community Investment

The electric school bus market has been built through a combination of state and federal investments. Early deployments were largely supported by programs such as the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), which helped school districts gain experience operating electric school buses and demonstrated the technology's viability. 

The launch of the U.S. EPA's Clean School Bus Program in 2021 marked a turning point that drove unprecedented national demand and brought new school districts into the market across rural, urban, suburban, and Tribal communities and 49 states. School districts with electric school buses are evenly split between congressional districts represented by Democrats and Republicans, underscoring that demand for electric school buses spans communities of all sizes, geographies and political contexts.

However, the past 18 months featured significant federal policy changes that created new challenges for school districts seeking to procure electric school buses. Those changes included the elimination of the 45W and 30C tax credits, which had helped offset the cost of electric school buses and charging infrastructure; the temporary suspension of federal funds for clean school buses; and broader federal disinvestment in electric vehicles through the rollback of emissions regulations and charging infrastructure funding. 

Despite these federal headwinds, the Clean School Bus Program maintains broad bipartisan support in Congress. In February, the EPA announced they will continue the program for the 2026 funding round. 

Local school districts and state governments also continued to invest in electric school buses, demonstrating a sustained local commitment to cleaner transportation and the health, environmental and operational benefits these buses provide. 

Between 2025 and 2026, several state programs helped sustain market momentum by awarding new electric school buses, including New York's School Bus Incentive Program (110 bus awards), Michigan's Clean Bus Energy Grant Program (106), Illinois' Driving a Cleaner Illinois Grant Program (46), Maryland's Electric School Bus Grant Program (46) and New Jersey's Electric School Bus Grant Program (53). These state investments are playing an increasingly important role in supporting continued deployment.

Upfront Prices Continue to be a Major Barrier to Adoption

While electric school buses provide long-term savings through lower fuel and maintenance costs, their higher upfront purchase price remains the greatest barrier to widespread adoption. Market experts anticipate declines in the cost of electric school buses in the coming years that will lead to electric school buses reaching total cost of ownership (TCO) parity with diesel-burning school buses. But for many school districts, particularly those with limited capital budgets, purchasing an electric school bus without financial assistance is still cost prohibitive. 

WRI’s analysis of the purchase prices of more than 4,600 electric school buses awarded through the Clean School Bus Program shows that prices have remained stagnant over the past four years despite market expansion. Between the program's first rebate round in 2022 and the third rebate round in 2024, average purchase prices changed little. Type A buses increased by approximately 8%, Type C buses—the most commonly purchased bus type—declined by less than 1%, and Type D buses increased by about 6%. After adjusting for inflation, prices declined modestly across all bus types, suggesting that manufacturers have largely offset inflationary pressures while maintaining relatively consistent pricing.

Although the growing number of electric school buses on the road demonstrates a maturing market, electric school buses remain significantly more expensive than diesel buses. In 2025, the average purchase price for a Type C electric school bus was approximately $376,000, while a new diesel Type C school bus typically cost roughly $140,000 to $170,000, leaving an upfront price gap of more than $200,000 per bus. Similar cost premiums existed for Type A and Type D electric school buses.

Further, purchase prices vary substantially across states and manufacturers. Average prices for the same bus size type differed by as much as $70,000 for Type A buses, $176,000 for Type C buses, and nearly $200,000 for Type D buses across states participating in the Clean School Bus Program. 

Even for a single manufacturer, prices varied considerably depending on the state and bus type procured by the district. For example, the purchase price of a Type C bus from the same manufacturer differed by approximately $180,000 between New York and Illinois. Similar variability was observed within individual states. In New York alone, the purchase price of Type C buses from the same manufacturer varied by as much as $100,000. These differences reflect a range of factors, including bus specifications, optional equipment, contract terms, and school district preferences. At the same time, these differences highlight the importance of competitive and transparent purchasing, state contracts and procurement strategies. 

Further, average purchase prices in Round 3 were similar between priority and non-priority school districts despite substantially different federal incentive amounts. For example, the rebate for a Type C electric school bus was $325,000 for priority districts compared with $170,000 for non-priority districts, yet average purchase prices were the same. One concern raised during the implementation of the Clean School Bus Program was that larger incentives could lead to higher purchase prices. While this analysis does not provide strong evidence of such a relationship, it represents only one dataset and should not be considered conclusive. Other factors such as the stacking of multiple funding sources (45W tax credit, state funding programs, etc.) may also influence purchase prices. Similarly, the reduction in federal incentive amounts between Round 1 and Round 3 ($345,000 to $325,000) did not correspond with uniform decreases in purchase prices. This suggests that changes in incentive levels alone may not fully explain pricing trends. 

WRI’s Roadmap to 100 outlines key solutions to make electric school buses more affordable such as scaling procurements through aggregation, unlocking new revenue streams through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications and battery second life, and continuing public funding and finance. 

Looking Ahead

The electric school bus market enters the second half of the decade at an important inflection point. Long-term market fundamentals remain strong despite changes in federal policy. The EPA is expected to announce the fourth round of Clean School Bus Program funding in the coming months, which will indicate the federal government's role in accelerating deployment in coming years. At the same time, state-led transition policies and utility investments are increasingly positioning electric school buses as a durable, long-term market.

The economic opportunity extends far beyond school bus manufacturing. The United States operates approximately 480,000 school buses, with roughly 35,000 vehicles replaced each year. Replacing these buses with electric models represents tens of billions of dollars in annual sales opportunities of vehicles, charging infrastructure, fleet management software, energy services, financing, workforce development, maintenance, battery recycling and second-life applications, and vehicle-to-grid technologies. 

Statewide zero-emission transition requirements are expected to remain a key driver of growth. Existing state transition requirements and commitments alone are projected to electrify approximately 20% of the U.S. school bus fleet in the coming decades, which would account for one of the nation's largest deployments of medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles. As adoption scales, these fleets will provide new opportunities to strengthen local grid resilience through vehicle-to-grid programs while reducing operating costs for school districts and utilities.

Most importantly, student health and academic success are the core of the transition away from fossil fuel-burning buses. Electric school buses eliminate tailpipe emissions, substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with diesel and propane buses, and provide children with a clean, quiet ride to and from school. Investment in electric school buses is an investment in healthier communities, a more resilient electric grid, and a modernized school transportation system. 

Looking to follow the most up-to-date, interactive electric school bus data? Check out our Electric School Bus Data Dashboard, where you can easily explore monthly trends and dive into the latest data.