The 2024–25 school year and classes in the United States have been in session for nearly four months, but many school districts across the country are continuing to struggle in their search for drivers to get students there. To address the shortage, schools are implementing emergency measures, such as hiring ride-share companies and enlisting school staff to fill in the gaps.

According to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the number of bus drivers has dropped by 12.2 percent since September 2019.

The primary factor driving the shortage is low pay. The EPI said that the median school bus driver earned 43 percent less than the median weekly wage for all workers and has declined by 2.8 percent since 2019.

“Compounding the problem, the average public school bus driver works about 32 hours per week, meaning that the weekly wages for bus drivers are even lower than the hourly wage implies,” the EPI said in the report, adding that 41 percent of parents reported that their children’s school district had reduced or eliminated bus services, “forcing them to become de facto chauffeurs.”

Alternatives to Counter Driver Shortages

In its 2024 State of School Transportation report, HopSkipDrive said that 91 percent of its respondents experienced a driver shortage in their districts, with 60 percent of school leaders saying the bus driver shortage has been severe enough to force them to shorten or reduce their routes.

Founded in 2014, HopSkipDrive develops partnerships with schools, districts, counties, and other organizations to fill the gaps in school transportation needs by paying qualified caregivers and transporting kids in buses, vans, and small vehicles.

According to HopSkipDrive director of communications Cindy Hamilton, their service isn’t a parent-only alternative as drivers must undergo rigorous pre-screening to qualify.

“While our drivers are just people in the community, they have to have at least five years of caregiver experience and go through a 15-point process that involves fingerprinting and background checks,” she told The Epoch Times.

“We pay them for their work, and they get access to some flex income. A lot of times, it’s an opportunity to use their own vehicles and connect with the kids on their rides.”

Some school districts have been forced to deal with their driver shortage by using school staff to fill in gaps.

In Ohio, Doug Palmer, for example, who serves as the senior transportation consultant for the state school boards association, told The Epoch Times that a survey of districts issued by the Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) showed that only 7 percent of their districts were fully staffed with bus drivers and the number of substitution drivers needed.

“Ohio is struggling. In many cases, we’ve had to use mechanics, secretaries, and even principals who got their driving classifications and are being used to get kids to school,” he said, while also backing the belief that driver pay is a big part of the issue for schools trying to staff their bus routes.

“Bus driving has never been an occupation that is on par with any other type of commercial driving because of the amount of hours worked a year. There are some rare instances where a senior bus driver takes a lot of trips and can possibly earn $80,000 to $100,000, but that’s very rare. Most school bus drivers earn between $26,000 and $32,000. It’s meant to be a fill-in job.”

Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the nation’s fourth-largest school district, has had to make some severe cuts to its school bus service in recent years.

According to Erin Rose Schubert, a spokesman for the CPS Parents for Buses advocacy group, the district canceled several bus routes for kids three weeks before the beginning of the school year and “parents were scrambling.”

While some in the district are using rideshare apps to fill in the gaps, her organization has been advocating a number of other options, she told The Epoch Times.

“There are hundreds of buses running with 10 or few students on them. This is a problem,” Schubert said. The CPS “finally implemented a first round of hub stops we recommended, where parents can drop off a student at a school close to their homes and then get on a bus to go to another school.”

Palmer says that while there are many alternatives available to counter the lack of drivers, implementation is a tougher obstacle.

“You can propose great ideas and have great plans, but getting everyone to agree on one and try it has been the difficult part,” she said.