Education Minister Paul Givan has said he wants assurances over the safety of children travelling to school using public transport.
Mr Givan described an incident where a double-decker bus carrying 43 pupils overturned as “every parent’s worst nightmare”.
Clare Foster, principal of Strangford Integrated College, said it had been a “very distressing incident” for pupils.
The bus was carrying the pupils to Bangor when it crashed and ended up on its side in a field on Ballyblack Road East near Carrowdore on Monday.
Two children were rescued by firefighters using specialist cutting equipment.
Four children were taken by ambulance to hospital and more than 40 were treated in the emergency department of the Ulster Hospital.
Two remain in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mr Givan visited the college on Tuesday to offer his support and said “our thoughts first and foremost are with all the families that have been impacted”.
He said an investigation would be carried out and “where there are any lessons that need to be learnt and if there are lessons, then I want to make sure that we will learn from that”.
“A lot of parents whose children use public transport will be encouraging their children to put on that seat belt, but we never expect that something like this will happen whenever your child goes onto a bus,” he said.
“So, I need to be assured that everything that should be taking place is taking place to provide safety for the transportation of 55,000 pupils across Northern Ireland every day.
“This incident will be investigated, it will be reviewed, but I need to be assured that we are providing that safe travel in our schools for those pupils and those families.
“I will be reviewing any of the safety measures that are in place for school transport and I will be asking for a report to be provided to me on that issue.”
Mrs Foster said: “We have had a team of counsellors in the college this morning for the young people.
“I am pleased to say, the young people have been talking through their experiences as they begin to process the trauma that they have been through.”
She added: “The children are talking, they do tend to turn naturally to their teachers that they know well.
“Everybody started their morning in their form class with their teacher and were given the opportunity to talk and to seek help.
“We have good attendance in the school today and I am pleased young people will often see their school as their safe place and somewhere they can come and engage with their teachers.
“We do, as you would expect, have some absences from young people who would ordinarily travel on that bus route.
“We sent teachers to the Ards bus station this morning to travel on those buses into school, so there would be support there.
“We will be working with those young people and their families in the days ahead who may be experiencing some trauma about getting back onto the school bus.”
