11/24/2023 0 Comments National school bus driver shortage![]() While this does limit drivers to operating school buses, districts can promote the waiver in their hiring efforts.įort Worth ISD Transportation website has a “Meet the Driver” video series to tell the story of two district bus drivers. ![]() The Texas Department of Public Safety has extended a waiver for the “under the hood” portion of the commercial driver’s license testing requirement for school bus drivers through Sept. Lake Travis ISD began using The Secured Mobility Authorized Ridership Technology (SMART) tag system this school year, which provides real time location of students and buses through ID badges students swipe when getting on and off the school bus. An easy-to-read schedule on the district website helps families plan how students will get to school.Īustin ISD uses WheresTheBus app to update families about disruptions in bus schedules and allow users to track when a bus will arrive at its stop. Through district communications and media interviews, Lake Travis ISD has kept families informed about the week on/week off bus service. Districts are trying several strategies to both manage and solve the problem: Communicate with families Despite increasing wages up to $34/hour, Lake Travis ISD is going to an alternating schedule for students who live more than two miles from their school, which is the TEA distance guideline for districts.Ĭhicago Public Schools has paid willing parents a $500/month stipend to transport their students to school since the 2021-22 school year. Some districts in Texas have tried increasing wages for bus drivers, while others are cutting back on bus routes. and then wasn't dropped off until after 5 p.m." Strategies to address the bus driver shortage Garland ISD parent Ashley Martinez told KHOU, "On the second day of school, my son wasn't picked up until 9 a.m. Parents are understandably frustrated about changes and disruptions in bus schedules. Studies have shown that not only do students who are chronically tardy have lower scores on standardized tests, but also entire classes with chronically tardy students demonstrate an achievement gap. Teachers often repeat instruction to catch up the latecomers or the tardy students miss learning components all together. ![]() The result is a disruption to the learning environment that can impact an entire classroom, not just the tardy students. One effect of districts not having enough drivers is students arriving late to school. “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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