Dive Brief:
- Districts throughout the country are facing school bus driver shortages, with only 6% of driver contracting firms reporting they were able to meet demand.
- This year's 94% of school districts experiencing some degree of shortage jumped from 85% last year.
- According to a survey from School Bus Fleet magazine, nearly 30% of districts said they were facing severe or desperate shortages.
Dive Insight:
“The school transportation industry has seen more driver shortages than not in the last 20 years,” Ronna Weber, executive director of the National School Transportation Association, told District Administration.
Those shortages are driven in part by regulatory constraints, which set a high bar for entry to the profession. But they also originate from high turnover in bus drivers, perhaps due to a negative perception of the job. Some districts have begun offering monetary bonuses for drivers, and others have encouraged administrators to reach out to drivers and make them feel welcomed.