Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 213a; Child Restraint Systems-Side Impact Protection; Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 213; Child Restraint Systems, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 213b; Child Restraint Systems; Incorporation by Reference
- Published
- Sep 9, 2026
- Effective
- Oct 9, 2026
- Citation
- 91 FR 57265
- Docket
- Docket No. NHTSA-2025-0046
- Agencies
- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Final rule; grant of petitions for rulemaking and other amendments.
Summary
The new rule updates the safety requirements for child‑seat devices. It lifts the side‑impact protection standard (FMVSS 213a) for seats that are installed on school buses, as long as the seats carry the new labeling the agency has specified. It also pushes back the deadline for manufacturers to meet the rule’s other requirements from June 30 2025 to December 5 2026. In addition, the rule changes how manufacturers test forward‑facing seats: a twelve‑month‑old crash test dummy that was previously required will no longer be used, and the procedures for positioning that dummy are revised. These changes were made in response to petitions from seat makers who said the original timelines and test‑dummy rules were impractical. The regulation was issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the vehicle‑safety arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It primarily affects companies that design, produce, or sell child‑restraint systems, especially those that supply seats for school buses, as well as school districts and other organizations that operate school buses and install these seats. The rule was published in the Federal Register on September 9 2026 and becomes effective on October 9 2026. From that date onward, manufacturers must follow the new labeling and testing provisions, and they have until December 5 2026 to bring any remaining requirements into compliance. Because the rule is final, the public comment period has already closed, and NHTSA will now monitor industry implementation and enforce the updated standards.
AI-generated summary — verify against the Federal Register text.
Official abstract
This final rule amends the safety standards for child restraint systems (CRSs). NHTSA is amending Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) No. 213a, "Child restraint systems--side impact protection," to exempt school bus CRSs from the standard's requirements as long as they meet specified labeling requirements; to delay the compliance date from June 30, 2025 to December 5, 2026; to amend the dummy selection requirements so that the Child Restraint Air Bag Interaction twelve-month-old test dummy (CRABI-12MO) will not be used to test forward-facing CRSs; and to amend positioning procedures for that dummy. The first two of these amendments are in response to petitions from CRS manufacturers. NHTSA is also amending FMVSS No. 213, "Child restraint systems" and FMVSS No. 213b, "Child restraint systems; Mandatory applicability beginning December 5, 2026," to exclude school bus CRSs from the requirements to provide attachments for connection to the vehicle's child restraint anchorage system and to change certain labeling requirements to reflect how school bus child restraints are used.
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