![]() ![]() “Since our drivers are the first and last school representatives that your children are in contact with every day, the District wants to ensure that your children start and end each day in a positive way.” Fort Worth ISD highlights the importance of bus drivers on their website. Understanding why the shortage is happening does not minimize the daily impact it can have on schools across the state. Bus driver shortage impacts the school day A recent report by transportation advocacy organization TransitCenter (pdf) cited the split shift, driving in the morning and then again at the end of the school day, as one of the big reasons drivers quit. “The school bus driver shortage is not a new issue, and yet there is an immediate and deeper need from pupil transportation professionals to respond to it with innovative and existing tactics in order to provide students the safety, security, and normalcy that they all so deeply crave and deserve since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said National Association for Pupil Transportation President Rick Grisham on the organization’s website.Īdding to the problem, companies like Amazon compete with school districts to hire drivers with commercial licenses by offering more flexible schedules and year-round pay. School districts have struggled to recruit new drivers and entice drivers back after they were furloughed or laid off during the 2020-21 school year. Superintendents and transportation directors in districts large and small are facing a driver shortage that has been years in the making but pushed to crisis level by the Covid pandemic. ![]() ![]() The varied factors leading to the bus driver shortage have forced school district leaders across Texas and the nation to rethink best practices for school transportation at the start of this school year. ![]()
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