But the Problem Solvers discovered school buses on the road and loaded with kids, despite potentially dangerous mechanical problems.

Bus drivers claim maintenance programs are lacking.

"We're driving by luck," said one driver who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We're driving by the seat of our pants."

Others, like Highline School District driver Dee Tomlin, tell us they've gotten sick behind the wheel because of a problem with the vehicle.

"I couldn't see anything," Tomlin said. "It was like white clouds were in front of my eyes. And I was very dizzy."

And school districts that have buses with bad brakes, worn tires and even missing lug nuts can't tell us how it happened.

The driver who spoke with us and asked that her real name not be used said parents shouldn't have to worry about whether their child's bus is safe.

She has clocked 1,000 hours behind the wheel and driven for several local school districts.

Asked how often she gets in a school bus and finds something wrong, she said, "at least two times a week."

Highline driver Tomlin is convinced something went wrong with her bus.

She had two kids on board bus #99 when she was overcome by carbon monoxide.

"If I wasn't conscious enough to stop the bus, I could have injured those students," Tomlin said.

Digging through the records

The Problem Solvers spent a year filing Freedom of Information requests for the State Patrol's school bus inspection records dating back to 2007. We spent months analyzing the data and tracking the performance of the 295 school districts.

Based on the records, our investigation turned up several that have persistent problems with their buses.

We found that Puyallup - the ninth largest school district - has the worst record.

Our investigation found that since the summer of 2007, 81 buses have been pulled from the road by State Patrol inspectors-- 25 of them just before the start of this school year.

The vast majority have brake problems. Records show some are severe.

One inspection report shows the right side rear brakes of a particular bus were "metal on metal," with no brake lining.

If there's any kind of routine maintenance program, how can that happen?

Puyallup School District spokeswoman Karen Hansen said, "It shouldn't have happened."

And that's not all.

Puyallup buses were found with damaged, worn and under-inflated tires, and worse.

State Patrol inspection reports show on one bus two lug nuts were missing and three were loose on the left side rear tire.

"Tires have not been inspected as they should have," Hansen said.

But our biggest shock came when we learned that the Puyallup School District superintendent had no clue about the severity of the problems until our investigation.

"That's correct," Hansen said.

Puyallup not alone

We soon learned this was a common theme, with top administrators in the dark about the details of their district's bus inspections.

"I get reports that show how many buses were out of service, how long they were out of service, and when they go back," said Peninsula School District Assistant Superintendent Chuck Cuzzetto. "I don't get the specifics of that."

Since Cuzzetto doesn't ask for details, we found there is a lot he doesn't know about his district's buses.

Records show the State Patrol has pulled 30 of them from the road since 2007 -- most for brake problems.

And one bus was pulled after inspectors found a knife in the driver's overhead. Knives are strictly prohibited in a zero-tolerance environment such as school buses.

Cuzzetto assured us there should have been a thorough investigation. But because he doesn't ask for detailed reports of inspection results, he couldn't tell us if the driver had been disciplined.

After our original interview, Cuzzetto looked into the matter and told us the knife was a table knife the driver kept in an overhead cabinet.

The driver received a "verbal reprimand," Cuzzetto said.

Little oversight

State Director of Pupil Transportation Allan Jones said he could not see any reason for a knife being on a bus, and said there was no excuse for brake problems.

Yet he also admits the state Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction doesn't ask for detailed information on bus inspections to help them pinpoint troubled districts.

"We could have asked for a lot of information, but we wouldn't have the staff to do anything with it, or the authority to require school districts to make those corrections," Jones said.

The state has absolutely no authority to force the districts to do better. Other than State Patrol inspections, the districts police themselves.

Jacqueline Mann, transportation director for the Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD), said "we're very confident in the inspections that we do."

PSESD drives low-income three and four year olds to pre-school.

Over and over and over again, Mann defended their maintenance.

"There are checks and balances," she said.

But the numbers don't support her claims.

With only 22 buses, records show almost every time inspectors come calling, they're forced to take nearly a quarter of them off the road.

Asked if she was concerned about the information we had show her, Mann continued to insist "I'm confident in the checks and balances that we have."

In the case of Dee Tomlin, who got carbon monoxide poisoning behind the wheel of a bus, Highline School District Spokeswoman Catherine Carbone-Rogers said, "Clearly whenever we get a report about a safety issue, we want to take that on very aggressively, which we did."

Highline - a district with an exemplary safety record - believes it did have all the proper checks and balances in place.

Tomlin said she became dizzy and nauseated while driving. "My throat and chest was hurting," she said.

Highline's investigation found no cause for Tomlin's illness.

But the Problem Solvers obtained mechanic's records that show they only tested for carbon monoxide after making several repairs.

While our investigation shows the majority of school districts do have good bus maintenance programs, at least one district is making major changes as a result of our investigation.

Puyallup School District Superintendent Tony Apostle has ordered an immediate inspection of all of the district's buses, to be completed within the next 30 days.

The district has even hired an outside contractor to help with the work.

Apostle has also launched an internal investigation to find out why he was left in the dark about the district's preventative maintenance problems and poor inspection results.