For years, Delegate Fleischauer introduced legislation to limit the time school children ride on buses in our state (for example, HB 2878 in 2004). Inspired by her husband Bob Bastress's efforts in the court system to limit school consolidation in counties so children would not spent inordinate amounts of time getting to and from school, Delegate Fleischauer's bill limited bus trips for elementary students to one hour per day, middle schoolers to one and one half hours, and high school students to two hours. One student estimated that during her school years she could have ridden around the world four times in the amount of time she spent riding buses to and from school.

Legislation modeled on Delegate Fleischauer’s bill finally passed in 2008 (HB 4319), but it was limited to elementary students. Delegate Fleischauer continues to introduce legislation to cut the bus riding times of the upper grade students, whom she thinks may be even more disadvantaged by long bus rides. For example, if students are unable to participate in extra-curricular activities because they spend so much time on school buses, it could jeopardize their chances of being accepted into college.