Does your child ride a half hour or more on a hot school bus twice a day?

Some Lexington County school buses travel daily without air conditioning.

In Batesburg-Leesville, 10 of District 3’s 21 state-owned school buses have no air conditioning, Mackenzie Taylor reported.

“2 of those 10 are spares and are not used on regular routes,” she said.

In Chapin and Irmo, District 5 has 132 buses, 102 provided by the state, the other 30 district-owned, Katrina Goggins reported.

She did not say how many of District 5’s buses have no air conditioning.

Lisa Ingram of District 4 in Gaston and Swansea said they own 6 activity buses with air. Of 41 state-owned buses (4 spares), 17 have air conditioning.

District 1 in Lexington, Gilbert and Pelion and District 2 in Cayce and West Columbia have not responded to a Chronicle query.

SC Department of Education data shows that 35% of buses across the state still lack air conditioning.

Parents and drivers say they are upset by the lack of air conditioning in the heat.

One District 1 driver told WLTX-TV that his bus doesn’t even have a fan.

“I was very upset and very angry,” Amber Jones, a parent in District 5 said.

“Just to know that my child and all the other children are riding on a school bus since school lets out, and it’s 90 to 100 degrees outside and those children have no air conditioning.”

Jones said their stop is last. Her son rides more than an hour one way.

“To me, anything could happen – heatstroke, kids could pass out, the bus drivers could have a heat stroke or pass out,” she said.

Other officials told WLTX that almost 40% of District 5 buses lack air conditioning.

Department of Education officials say they are working to lower those numbers.

“The state has done a real good job of replacing buses across the state,” Bill Kurts, District 1’s director of Transportation, said.

“I believe they’ve replaced about 3,000 buses over the last 3 years.”

The state has reduced the number of buses without air conditioning to 37%. Yet nearly 2,000 buses still lack air conditioning.

Kurts told WLTX that if a bus driver needs a fan, the state will install one.

He said the state will replace 22 non-air conditioned buses with new ones.