I find the old school buses quite interesting since there were some types of school buses built in the 1950s and 1960s that are not built today. The short school buses were somewhat common back in the 1960s when they didn't have vans to use as school buses.

However it seems to me ever since there have been school buses, there has been some form of small school bus. It was on occasion that a Chevrolet Carryall would be used as a small school bus. Then of course the early Chevrolet Suburbans or a full sized station wagon and even an Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser would be used as a small school bus.

In the 1950s the International Metro delivery van could be obtained for use as a small school bus. Once the big three automakers introduced better full sized vans around 1970 (1968 for the Ford E-series) the made suitable small school buses. I recall riding on a school bus that was based on a 1970 Chevrolet C-series pickup chassis. Basically the bus body placed on a stock pickup truck chassis. It was very small. I don't think it could hold more than 9 children. That particular operator had 10 buses like that. This was basically an early style of an A type school bus.

Around 1972, I saw my first van type school bus with a raised roof. This school bus had the standard style school windows instead of the van windows. It basically had a resemblance to the A type school bus of today. In late 1975, I saw a Wayne Busette for the time. One woman remarked at the time that it looked like a school bus with ears. It was a 16 passenger school bus body on a cutaway van chassis. Within a few years, most school bus operators retired their unmodified vans used for school buses in favor of this type of small school bus. For years afterwards, a raised roof van could be obtained for use as a school bus but they too fell out of favor for the A type school bus.

In my area, Wayne school bus bodies were very popular. Nearly all the school bus operators in my area had them. Blue Bird was probably the next most popular school bus body, The rest had a smaller share of the market. In the late 1960 and early 1970s there were many short Wayne school buses in my area. Many of them were 20 passenger bodies and some of them were 28 passenger bodies. Some of the 20 passenger Wayne bodies had standee windows. The standee windows weren't uncommon on the standard length bodies. The 20 passenger buses were of the perfect size for carrying special needs children since they were basically no larger than the A- type school buses of today. The full sized truck chassis probably made them harder to drive than the cutaway vans of today.

Even though the number of school bus body manufacturers have shrunk, there is still plenty of competition and a wide selection. The A-type school buses are now sold under the Collins, Mid Bus, Corbeil and Girardin nameplates. The C-type school buses are sold under the IC, Thomas and Blue Bird nameplates. The latter two manufacture A-type school buses. I believe that all three of the large school bus manufacturers put out a short school bus though not many of them. I have seen a short body Thomas C-2 Saf-T-liner. 

However, it is amazing to go back to the days when Wayne and others manufactured school bus bodies that had as few as three rows of seats which meant that they could seat just 12 adults. I recall seeing a small number of short school buses that could only seat 16 adults. These short school buses had their place and a good intact example is probably highly prized by collectors. Most of them were probably rated between 1 and 2 tons and in those cases a person could buy one and not need a special driver's license unless they registered it as a bus.