Did your parents love you as a child or did they make you ride the school bus? My kids ride the good old icon that is the big yellow American school bus. I am proud and feel honored to have benefited from this service for the last 5 years. To all the individuals who wake up early, rise and shine and drive thousands of often unruly school kids, my hat is off to you. The convenience of having school buses in the USA is a god send. In the UK, when I was a child I did not have school buses and had to rely on parents, friends, public transport or walking. I would wait on the street corner, soaking wet from the rain as my lift failed to turn up. I would often trek for hours to reach the iron gates of the playground, tired and exhausted, the rubber on the sole of my shoes wearing thin. 
But fear not you Brits moving to the land of the free. Your kids have nothing to fear. In America a big yellow bus will pick your children up from your house and return them safely at the end of the school day (On most occasions anyway, unless you get one of those weird, incapable types that slip through the system, as illustrated here. School bus drivers, on the whole, are one of the greatest assets to your local community. The American school bus provides safe, effective, efficient and healthy transport for our children and that is something I am lucky privileged to utilise.
So my kids may suffer in years to come with various illnesses related to riding the school bus. I doubt it though and think it is a risk worth taking.
I remember being horrified to learn that children as young as 5-6 could be put into public transports (alone) to go to school. You would get arrested here for abandoning your child and subjecting him to the possibility of a twiddling or a dry ass-rape.
I agree, I think little kids who are like 5 and 6 shouldnt be going on school buses, but we do it anyway. I used a school bus to get home in elementary school, it was fine, not very safe because it has no seat belts. I remember it being very noisy and I after a long day at school, kids were soooo noisy, I remember in 5th grade I needed peace and quiet from all those noisy brats. I remember when I moved and there wasnt a school bus, so I was dropped off everyday in my fathers vintage RollsRoyce and at first it was so cool but then it got really embarrising and I asked to be dropped off around the corner so people wouldnt see me come out of it. I actually missed the school bus at that time.
I loved the school bus as a kid. You sat in the back and it was total anarchy, no adult supervision. We’d copy homework, curse like sailors, and talk about all the girls. As we got older, the back seats became the make-out seats.
Ahhh, those younger years…
My 3-year-old nephew got put onto a special bus before he even turned 3. He was being shuttled to a school for those with disabilities, and, as his mother has 2 other children, it is fantastic for her. I was in Scotland last month and was lucky enough to be on a school bus with jr. high students. They didn’t get a yellow bus. It did make me a little sad. But they did go on a bus.
Love your blog! Its interesting to hear what “foreigners” think about America.
As a teen who just got her driver’s license, I can honestly say that I hated the bus. I don’t know how your school system sets it up, but mine had the pick-up according to regions, not grades. The region I was in had more high schoolers than elementary kids on it, so I knew cussing and all about making babies by the time I was in 4th grade. My parents were shocked at the things I would say. Also, a chubby little girl was easy pickings for bullying. I had to have my hair cut short once because someone thought it was cute to put glue in my hair. And goodness knows how many times my bookbag got tied to the bus seat.