And that has helped recruit the number of drivers they needed for the school year. We spoke with the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, Monifa McKnight, and she told us her school district raised pay and guaranteed at least 30 hours of work each week for drivers. MARTÍNEZ: Now, some school districts say that they've solved this problem. And also the compensation for this position has really not kept up with the need in the marketplace. That middle break does not work for most people. Today, people are looking for a solid amount of time. They worked a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon, and they might have had other employment or they might have had home employment, like they might have had a farm or a ranch or something that they did in between times. But that put a three-year hold in most school districts on hiring of bus drivers.Īlso, most people who were bus drivers originally worked a split shift. So we would have been recruiting and hiring during the pandemic had we been having school in the regular way. I think during the pandemic, we obviously did not need the number of drivers that you normally would have. MCGEE-HEWITT: I believe that school districts across the country have been dealing with this issue and trying to deal with it for several years. MARTÍNEZ: What's been the reason why it hasn't been able to be at least fixed or maybe addressed in a more efficient way? And I believe that's because of a variety of reasons. And the position is not bringing to the profession the numbers of people we need. There are not enough people at this moment interested in being bus drivers. But really, this is an issue that's been going on pre-pandemic and before. The Louisville issue obviously brought some national attention to the issue. So this year isn't unique, although I believe that this year is sort of the perfect storm for this issue to come out. MOLLY MCGEE-HEWITT: Well, I believe this is an ongoing shortage. Why are so many school districts having a shortage of bus drivers right now? Molly, this is the time of year where either students are back in school or about to go back to school. She's a CEO and executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. Molly McGee-Hewitt is here to tell us about that. So why are many school districts struggling to find a few good bus drivers? Last week, a combination of bus delays and technical malfunctions forced many schools to close temporarily, angering a lot of parents and stranding some students, who were left without a ride home. Now, that problem came to a head recently in Louisville, Ky. have been struggling for years with a shortage of school bus drivers. * Numbers are only as accurate as the reporting agency that provides them.School districts across the U.S. Links to the most recent surveys are below: This shows the continuing need for forceful, advanced instruction to school bus drivers and students, as well as the need to increase our efforts to thoroughly inform drivers across the country about the requirements of the school bus stop law. Fatalities - which are caused by a variety of circumstances and errors by passing motorists and school bus drivers - continue to take place. This survey is provided annually to the school transportation industry in an effort to raise awareness of the dangers involved in loading and unloading school children. Only fatalities involving school children in or around the loading or unloading areas of a school bus are included. National School Bus Loading & Unloading SurveysĬonducted by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), along with the help of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, the National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey is a collection of fatality accident reports provided by state agencies that are responsible for school transportation and/or accident records.* KSDE asks that all states and Washington, D.C., provide data to the agency, and then KSDE compiles it for this survey.
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