Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Clean School Bus Program (66.045)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$963 million
• Grant awards67
• Typical award$12.2 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$23.3 million
• Size rank264 of 1824
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• It is the 264th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 71% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 28 states and territories.

What the program funds

Title XI, Section 71101 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA or The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or (BIL)), Public Law 117-58 amended section 741 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16091) to authorize the EPA’S Clean School Bus (CSB) Program to award grants, contracts, and rebates for the replacement of existing school buses with clean school buses. IIJA appropriates $ 5 billion for the program over five Federal fiscal years (FY 22-26). The objective of this assistance is, to the maximum extent practicable, achieve nationwide deployment of clean school buses and zero-emission school buses and to ensure a broad geographic distribution of awards. The CSB Program will fund the replacement of existing school buses with cleaner buses that result in better air quality on the bus, in bus loading areas, and throughout the communities in which they operate. The Clean School Bus Program works to reduce pollution emitted from existing school buses by replacing them with cleaner school buses. Priority is given to projects which propose to replace buses that serve high-need local education agencies; rural school districts; Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded school districts; and school districts receiving basic support payments for children who reside on Indian land.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Eligible recipient means 1 or more local or State governmental entities responsible for providing school bus service to 1 or more public school systems or the purchase, lease, license, or contract for service of school buses; a public charter school district responsible for the purchase, lease, license, or contract for service of school buses for that charter school; a Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) or Joint Transportation Agency (JTA), with a NCES ID specific to either the RESA or JTA; an eligible contractor; a nonprofit school transportation association; or an Indian Tribe (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C.5304)), Tribal organization (as defined in that section), or Tribally controlled school (as defined in section 5212 of the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988 (25 U.S.C.2511)) that is responsible for providing school bus service to 1 or more Bureau-funded schools (as defined in section 1141 of the Education Amendments of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 2021)) or the purchase, lease, license, or contract for service of school buses; a nonprofit school transportation association dedicated primarily to school bus transportation; or an eligible for-profit organization including school bus dealers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), school bus service providers, and Electrification as a Service (EaaS) providers . Per the CSB statute (42 U.S.C.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

What the money can and cannot pay for

Grants, contracts, and rebates can be made available to eligible recipients to replace existing school buses with either clean school buses or zero-emission school buses. A “clean school bus” is a school bus that reduces emissions and is operated entirely or in part using an alternative fuel or is a zero-emission school bus. A “zero-emission school bus” is a school bus that produces zero exhaust emission of any air pollutant and any greenhouse gas. Half of the total funding available annually is dedicated to zero-emission school buses while the other half is for clean school buses. Please refer to applicable program guidance or competitive funding announcements for funding use restrictions. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: https://www.epa.gov/geospatial.;

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. EPA may include voluntary and mandatory matching requirements. These requirements may vary based on whether the eligible recipient’s application qualifies for prioritizations listed in the statute.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

For FY 2024, a total of 67 projects were awarded, 40 of them from the School District Sub-Program. These projects ranged from $525,000 (15 propane buses) to $20,355,000 (50 electric buses) with an average of $9,503,473. The remaining 27 selected projects where from the Third-Party Sub-Program and ranged from $7,704,603 (25 electric school bus) to $39,499,635 (100 electric school buses) with an average of $21,661,520.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2026: Projects include the replacement of diesel and non-diesel internal combustion engine school buses with battery electric, compressed natural gas (CNG), or propane drivetrain school buses, along with the installation of the associated charging infrastructure for electric school buses. Eligible vehicles include Class 3 – 7+ school buses, and eligible charging infrastructure includes installation between the electrical meter and charging port, such as charging equipment, design and engineering, installation costs, and related intelligent equipment or software designed to monitor bus and infrastructure performance.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

Businesses received 51% of the money, state and local governments 36% and nonprofits 4.0%.

By state

Each state below has its own page for this program, with its recipients and yearly totals.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.