We keep waiting for the bus driver shortage to end, but it doesn't. For years now, schools have been struggling to find enough school bus drivers to keep all their routes running, and still the problem persists. According to recent studies, 24% of districts describe their shortage to be "severe" or "desperate," and another 38% report "moderate" staffing problems. Only around 10% claim to have no driver staffing issues at all.

In short, districts will have to continue to hustle if they're going to find new drivers, and keep trying new tactics. Here are some more things to try!

In previous articles, we mentioned that it seemed like state intervention may be called for when dealing with the school bus driver shortage - and apparently, New York agrees. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced a series of state-level actions intended to help alleviate the driver shortage across all of its districts.

What is New York doing? And what more could it or other states potentially do? Let's take a look.

We keep waiting for the bus driver shortage to end, but it doesn't. For years now, schools have been struggling to find enough school bus drivers to keep all their routes running, and still the problem persists. According to recent studies, 24% of districts describe their shortage to be "severe" or "desperate," and another 38% report "moderate" staffing problems. Only around 10% claim to have no driver staffing issues at all.

In short, districts will have to continue to hustle if they're going to find new drivers, and keep trying new tactics. Here are some more things to try!

From the perspective of a district transportation manager, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak came at one of the worst possible times. No time is good for an epidemic, but with schools already hurting from the shortage of school bus drivers, even minor disruptions to the workforce can cause major problems.  

So what can a school do to reduce the chances of illness? Or, if their school bus drivers do get sick, what alternatives could they set up? There are not many easy answers here, but districts still need to look into what they can do.

For years, the education sector has been plagued by a school bus driver shortage, and there's no end yet in sight. All signs and surveys point towards districts continuing to struggle to find sufficient drivers to cover their routes. That's causing continuing problems within the district administration, as well as for huge numbers of parents and students trying to find stable transportation options.