What the programme does and what it has spent
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a federal law passed in 2021, created the Clean School Bus Program and authorised 5 billion dollars for it, to run from fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026. The Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency that runs the programme, pays school districts to replace diesel buses, which burn fossil fuel and release exhaust in the air children breathe, with electric buses or other cleaner types.
Every school day, 25 million children ride our nation's largest form of mass transit: the school bus.
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States at the time of the announcement, speaking on January 8, 2024. Source 4.
The agency counted approximately 2.7 billion dollars awarded under the programme since 2021, in a press release issued in February 2026. Around 90% of that money funded electric buses, the agency says, and the rest funded other cleaner fuel types.
The 2022 Rebates and 2023 Grants figures are counted by the agency in source 4. The 2023 Rebates figure is counted by the agency in source 1. The disputed cumulative total is not shown here, only these 3 individually dated rounds.
Show the numbers
| 2022 Rebates | 875 |
| 2023 Grants | 965 |
| 2023 Rebates | 900 |
The 3 rounds that built that total
The programme ran 3 rounds before it was reworked. Its first Rebates round in 2022 gave over 875 million dollars to fund 2,366 buses in 372 school districts. Its first competitive Grants round opened in April 2023 offering at least 400 million dollars, drew more than 120 eligible applications requesting over 1.9 billion dollars, and ended up awarding about 965 million dollars to 67 applicants, announced in January 2024, funding over 2,700 buses in 280 school districts across 37 states and serving over 7 million students.
A second Rebates round, announced in May 2024, awarded nearly 900 million dollars for over 3,400 buses in approximately 530 school districts across 47 states, Washington D.C., and several federally recognised Tribes and United States territories. The agency says 92% of those buses were electric, and about 45% of the projects it selected sat in low income, rural or Tribal priority areas, receiving about 67% of the funding in that round.
The 2022 Rebates figure is an exact count from source 4. The 2023 Grants figure is stated as a minimum, over 2,700, from source 4. The 2023 Rebates figure is stated as a minimum, over 3,400, from source 1.
Show the numbers
| 2022 Rebates | 2,366 |
| 2023 Grants | 2,700 |
| 2023 Rebates | 3,400 |
What changed on February 19, 2026
On February 19, 2026, the agency voided the entire 2024 Rebates round before any of its money went out, and invited those applicants to apply again once a new funding notice opens. The agency also opened a public comment period, 45 days long, on adding new fuel types to the programme, compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, hydrogen and biofuels, alongside electric. The agency said it wants to give school districts more choice of fuel, strengthen its own oversight of the programme, and make sure tax dollars are used well.
The same February 2026 release named Lion Electric, a bus manufacturer that had received approximately 160 million dollars in Clean School Bus Program funding directly, and noted the company went bankrupt in 2024.
Where the programme stands right now
As of September 2, 2026, no new funding notice has opened since the restructuring, so no school district can currently apply for a new round of programme money. Subtracting the 2.7 billion dollars the agency counts as awarded from the 5 billion dollars authorised leaves about 2.3 billion dollars of the original programme not yet awarded, a calculation by MAOWCE from those 2 agency figures. The agency has not stated when a new funding notice will open.