COEUR d'ALENE - That third-grader who can't resist the urge to grab another child's hat may think he's going to get away with it, but if he does it on a school bus, there's a pretty good chance the act will be captured on video.

Security cameras have provided an extra set of eyes on school buses in Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls for about two decades.

"Our No. 1 priority is the safe transfer of the student to and from home, and the safety of the drivers," said Coeur d'Alene School District spokeswoman Laura Rumpler. "The cameras help serve that purpose."

Cameras have become the norm on school buses nationwide, said David Anderson, who represents Region 5, including Idaho, on the National Association for Pupil Transportation's board of directors. Anderson, head of transportation for Adams Five Star Schools, a 43,000-student school district in Colorado, just outside Denver, told The Press that all 150 buses in his district are equipped with digital camera systems that are used daily for a variety of purposes.

"With the increased concerns of bullying and student management on the buses, a camera system becomes a valuable tool," Anderson said.

Many of the school buses in Coeur d'Alene, 48 of those that are part of its 66-bus fleet, and all the buses in Post Falls, are outfitted with permanent black boxes able to hold a security camera. Each district has several cameras that are rotated among the buses.

"The cameras can be helpful regarding clarifying what exactly happened in a particular incident or serve as a deterrent," said Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane.

Coeur d'Alene has two cameras that are moved between the 48 buses with boxes. Rumpler said neither the driver nor the bus passengers ever know if there is a camera in the box or not.

The balance of the school buses in Coeur d'Alene have different types of onboard security surveillance systems reflecting technological advances over the years. There are nine buses with video cassette recording systems with tapes that eventually rewind and record over themselves; four buses with digital hard drive systems that record for up to 30 days and are then removed for viewing; and the five newest buses have the most advanced digital system available, with cameras that record onto small memory cards.

Jill Hill, the school district's transportation director, is the only person in her department who reviews the recordings, completing spot-reviews of the footage on a regular basis. A quarter of the district's roughly 10,000 students ride the district's buses to and from school each day.

Hill also looks at the surveillance recordings in response to student or parent complaints, or if the district is trying to track an emerging potential problem situation.

"It might be something as simple as 'He poked me,' or 'He pulled my hat,' but it can escalate, and then you have kids turning around," Hill said.

It can create a disturbance on the bus, she said, and put the other riders and the driver at risk. By reviewing the footage, they are able to identify the students and confirm the source of the complaint.

The presence of the cameras helps the drivers too, Hill said.

"They're watching the road, and they can't see what's going on back there," she said.

Rumpler said that during the 2011-12 school year, Hill reviewed footage in response to roughly 22 specific issues or complaints, and she has looked into a handful of inquiries this year. The issues have ranged from "the most minor," Rumpler said, to potentially serious situations.

Nothing has approached the level of seriousness seen recently in national news stories regarding bullying and bus driver misconduct in other parts of the country, she said.

There are occasionally complaints from parents that a bus driver is traveling too fast, Rumpler said. The district has not dealt with any incidences of severe driver misconduct.

"On the kids' side, we hear about everything, from normal roughhousing to potentially looking at footage of a child picking on another child," Rumpler said. "We review and investigate every complaint."