Topeka ? More youngsters will have to ride in booster seats starting this summer, under legislation the House sent Monday to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Sebelius, who favors strengthening the state’s child passenger safety law, said she was inclined to sign the legislation. The new law would take effect July 1.

“I think it’s a great step to keep our children safe,” Sebelius said during a Statehouse news conference. “Anything we can do to keep them safe and secure in cars, I think, is a great step forward.”

House approval on a 94-27 vote capped six years of lobbying by child advocates, law enforcement agencies and public health officials.

The House first passed the bill a month ago, but the Senate made minor changes. The vote Monday was to accept the Senate’s changes and send the bill to Sebelius.

The law requires children under 4 years old to ride in child safety seats and mandates children age 4 through 13, drivers and front-seat passengers wear seat belts.

Safety advocates have said without booster seats, belts often didn’t fit young children properly and could injure them severely in a crash.

The bill requires children ages 4 through 7 to ride in booster seats if they weigh less than 81 pounds or are under 4-foot-9. The bill also triples the fine for violating the law to $60.

Supporters said the goal wasn’t to punish parents, but to educate them about how best to keep their children safe.

Booster seat bills passed the Senate in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005, but died in the House. More than 30 members who previously voted against such legislation supported this year’s bill, including Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka.

“The pressure kept building from year to year,” said Cindy D’Ercole, lobbyist for Kansas Action for Children. “There’s a lot of people who supported it, and finally it had critical mass.”

Conservative legislators still criticized the bill as intruding too much into families’ lives, though many of them conceded the benefits of using booster seats.

“It’s a good idea, but people ought to have some responsibility to raise their own kids,” said Rep. John Edmonds, R-Great Bend.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike O’Neal, who helped shepherd the bill through the House, said some House members changed their minds about the bill because they reviewed traffic statistics and heard from health officials about how children can be injured in crashes.