In August, I was contacted by a writer for Slate magazine to comment on school startup challenges. Inevitably, the conversation turned to the school bus driver shortage.
The writer and I spoke about a number of issues for over 30 minutes. We could have talked for three days. Only one of my comments made his article, “School bus drivers have not been at the top of the payscale, and the work has traditionally attracted a lot of older folks.”
The reporter followed with a summary of my explanation about the impact COVID-19 had in causing some transportation employees to retire or otherwise leave the industry prematurely. He reiterated what I told him about the increased competition for drivers from the likes of not only Amazon but also Uber, Lyft and the increasing number of student-focused, alternative transportation companies. Even from neighboring school districts and school bus contractors.
What didn’t make the article was the efforts the school transportation industry has been making to attract and retain drivers, like increasing salaries and bettering workplace culture.
As to the latter, he alluded to what I referred to as the top one or two challenges facing school bus drivers: Student and parent behavior. In a subsequent interview with a Bloomberg News reporter, I expanded on this topic, discussing the demoralization of school bus drivers who feel they are not adequately supported by school district administrators and principals because of a lack of understanding about the vital role transportation plays in a child’s educational day. That importance is illustrated by the ongoing issue playing out in Chicago Public Schools.
There, special education advocates have filed the latest complaint against the third-largest school district in the U.S. for a lack of required transportation for students with disabilities. Months after it emerged from special monitoring by the Illinois State Board of Education, with a grade of “sufficient progress” on solving unreliable school busing, CPS once again finds itself in the crosshairs as the ongoing school bus driver shortage had resulted in over 2,200 students with IEPs awaiting routes at this report. The school district did increase, by 5 percent, the number of students with disabilities on school buses from the start of school on Aug. 26 through the second week of September.
A district spokesperson noted for Chalkbeat Chicago that the number of certified school bus drivers also increased over last school year. But as special education advocates noted in their complaint, the lack of bus service amounts to “widespread denial” of a “free and appropriate education.”
There is no simple solution to ongoing school bus shortages, which have been an issue for decades. Certainly COVID-19 played a large role in exacerbating them. So, too, have elongated delays between new driver applicant training and them receiving their commercial driver’s license. As I explained to the Bloomberg News reporter, few people outside of transportation circles comprehend the time necessary to train, background check and certify school bus drivers. The slightest delay could mean losing the applicant to another job and starting the entire process over again.
Meanwhile, students and their parents are losing out. I often hear that the school transportation model is “broken.” I prefer to say it is unsustainable in its current form. It’s not for a lack of trying, but evolution is necessary, and it’s fixable. This comes via fresh ideas and continued hard work. Student transportation, traditionally speaking, is well-versed in the latter not so much the former.
Today, more than any other time before it, new solutions are required as are new leadership perspectives. The industry will also take increased funding from state legislatures and voters, but that requires transparency and efficiency like never before. For example, non-traditional school bus services, when done correctly, which contributor and special needs expert Linda Bluth discusses this month. Student ridership verification and school bus location apps promote goodwill with parents. Increased public-private partnerships, like what school bus contractor Alltown Bus Service in Chicago is doing with Wilber Wright College, develop streamlined career pathways for commercial driver’s license holders.
Necessity is the mother of innovation. And student transporters and their operations have a lot of needs to fulfill, the most important being the services their students and parents rely on. Keep an open mind to the possibilities and strive to be a solution.
Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the October 2024 issue of School Transportation News.
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