It probably varies from place to place but for me it included:

• About two weeks of classroom work. We reviewed policies, federal laws, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), state laws, regulations about school buses, student safety, district policies, and lots of other stuff about just know-how.
• Reviewing hours of video on bus operation. Included stuff like railroad crossings, loading, unloading, special needs students, wheelchair lift operation, emergency actions, and more.

• Three months of training on:

• How to identify all the components of the bus and how to properly inspect them. I had to be able to describe where things like the air compressor are, how it's driven (by gear), where and how to check arll fluids, how to identify the air governor, all the steering components, suspension components, safety equipment, wheels, tires, brakes, and so on.

• Air brake operation- how to use them, how to check them, how they function differently than regular ones, etc.

• Road training. We drove a bus all over the area to learn everything from how to cross railroad tracks to loading and unloading, where we can turn around, every school in the area and how you get in and out of it, etc.

• Backing, turning and what I call "lane management"- keeping yourself safe and aware of where you are and where all traffic is around you. That's not easy because buses have limited sight lines.

• Practice, practice and more practice.

Also there were a complete physical checkup, a physical agility test (lift this sandbag, carry it 50 feet, jump off this platform, get out of this belted chair and run to that spot in x time, and so on), a drug test, a background check, a fingerprint check and more.

All told it took about 3-4 months of real time, but it was anywhere from 2-4 hours each day for me.