COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — For the fourth year, many of Ohio’s more than 600 school districts are beginning classes with a shortage of bus drivers. Districts must ensure safe public and private school transportation and compete with commercial trucking and delivery services for drivers.
A survey of school districts commissioned by the Ohio School Boards Association found that about 7% of school districts are fully staffed and have an adequate number of substitute drivers. Nearly a third of school districts require substitute drivers and additional trips to transport all students. About 13% of school districts have office workers and mechanics driving regular routes. And about 9% of school districts have no solution that works.
“Even with their office staff and janitors who have CDL licenses and mechanics behind the wheel, they can’t cover all of their daily routes,” says Doug Palmer, senior transportation consultant at OSBA.
Palmer said the problem with the bus driver shortage is not just that it’s difficult to find drivers, but it’s also more challenging for districts to get students to their school buildings. Because public school districts also have to transport private school students, the increase in students using vouchers is having an impact.
“There are more students who are eligible or can afford to attend private schools or non-public schools than they previously thought,” Palmer said. “That has put a tremendous amount of pressure on school transportation departments because everyone wants to start at 8 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m. And it’s just not physically possible to get all the buses to all the places at the same time.”
Palmer said the survey found that 44% of districts are offering higher salaries and bonuses to address the bus driver shortage. About a third are offering their current employees more flexibility in obtaining a bus driver’s license, and just as many are creating 8-hour positions for drivers who would otherwise have to work split shifts. In some cases, parents are being paid by their school to transport their children.
But the survey reveals the working hours of a typical bus driver, and concerns about bad behavior on buses – which Palmer says is actually rare – still leads to hiring problems.
Since 2021, Ohio districts have struggled with a shortage of bus drivers, fueled by a wave of retirements and aggressive recruiting by the commercial trucking industry, which also suffers from a driver shortage. Palmer said the increasing shutdown of delivery services from retail to food service has also made it harder to find drivers. Schools have delayed the start of classes or ended classes early to deal with the transportation issues.
Palmer said it takes about a month for a driver to be hired and complete the appropriate safety training before he can hit the road with the students.
