HELENA, Mont. (AP) – A Montana school district is hanging $ 4,000 bonuses and inviting people to try out big yellow school buses in hopes of luring them into a job that schools are struggling to fill as children return in face-to-face classes.
A Delaware school district offered to pay parents $ 700 to take care of their own transportation, and a Pittsburgh district delayed the start of classes and said hundreds of more children would have to walk to school. ‘school. Schools in the United States offer hiring vouchers, provide the training needed to obtain a commercial driver’s license, and increase the hourly wage to attract more drivers.
The shortage of bus drivers is complicating the start of a school year already plagued by the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19, the controversial disagreement over masking requirements and the challenge of regaining lost educational ground in due to the loss of the pandemic last year.
The shortage of drivers is not new, but the shortage of labor in many sectors and the persistent effects of the pandemic have made it worse, as approximately half of the workforce was over 65 and more vulnerable. to the virus, said Joanna McFarland, co-founder and CEO of school travel services company HopSkipDrive, which tracks school bus problems.
His company conducted a survey in March that found that nearly 80% of responding districts had trouble finding enough bus drivers.
“It’s really at a breaking point,” McFarland said.
First Student, a company that hires bus services for school districts in the county, held test driving events they called “Big Bus, No Big Deal” in Montana and many other states to give people a chance to test your driving. The hope was that a barrier could be removed for those who might otherwise be interested in helping children get in and out of school safely, said Dan Redford, with First Student in Helena, Montana.
“In fact, we set up a closed tour of the fairgrounds and invited the public to come in and learn that it’s not a big deal to drive a big bus,” Redford said. “They’re actually pretty easy to drive. Sit well up. You have a lot of views ”.
In Helena, the company has 50 bus drivers and needs 21 more before classes begin on Aug. 30, a deficit that Redford described as unprecedented.
Attendance ended up being scarce at the Helena event, but similar demonstrations, such as the one recently held in Seattle, resulted in more requests.
The delta variant also prompted U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend the use of universal masks in schools, especially for children too young to be vaccinated. But in many areas, there is a wave of fierce anti-mask protests.
The first student lost some Helena drivers to mask bus requirements, Redford said.
“I know I’ve had a lot of drivers who don’t believe in that and don’t want to have to deal with it,” Redford said.
For parents, the headaches of school buses come at a particularly difficult time.
Monica Huff was at home in quarantine with a probable case of COVID-19 on Wednesday when she learned that her 14-year-old son’s school bus did not show up at her stop in suburban Houston.
“I was worried. I was scared. … I didn’t know where I was,” he said. She felt especially helpless because she couldn’t leave to get it herself without putting others at risk of infection.
In the end, it was learned that the driver of the primary school bus had picked up the older children and taken them to high school. She was relieved to learn that she arrived at school, although her late start was also a concern, as she is still regaining ground in her studies after falling behind during early learning. last year.
“There’s enough concern for this year with people getting angry about masks,” he said.
Republican government Greg Abbott initially banned Texas school districts from needing masks, but successful legal challenges led the Texas Education Agency on Thursday to suspend enforcement of its ban while challenges go through the courts.
In Florida, many of the larger school districts use administrators as drivers and implement other measures to stop students in class when the school year begins against a state political masked fight between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wants to ban mask warrants and districts convinced that they are needed to protect children.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered his secretary of education to explore possible legal action against states that have blocked school mask warrants and other health measures aimed at protecting students against COVID-19.
Economic forces are also at stake in the shortage of bus drivers. Driving a school bus requires a commercial driver’s license which can take weeks to obtain. And people who have it can often find work with a higher pay that doesn’t require splitting the day to pick it up and leave it. Demand for commercial drivers only increases with the increase in pandemic-related online shopping, McFarland told HopSkipDrive.
But working with children who drive a bus can be a rewarding profession, and the hours work well for parents or retirees who stay home or are looking to supplement their income, contractors say. No work is required on nights, weekends or holidays. Field trips and sporting events can add more hours to those who want them, Redford told First Student.
His company allows bus drivers whose children are at least a year old to travel with them while they work, saving daycare costs, Redford said.
A Michigan school district was able to find enough drivers ensuring they could work enough hours in the district, including as janitors or food service, to qualify for health insurance coverage, said Dave Meeuwsen, executive director of the school. ‘Michigan Student Transportation Association.
In the suburban city of Salt Lake City, the Canyons School District was in a difficult situation about a month ago. It dropped about 30 drivers, so its staff would have been too small to handle all of its routes, spokesman Jeff Haney said. Administrators said office employees may have to obtain their commercial driver’s licenses to take all children to school.
“It was very alarming and very worrying,” he said.
The district also increased the remuneration of bus drivers and offered a program to help people obtain commercial licenses. In the following weeks, it has experienced an increase in applications. If they continue to enter at the same rate, the district should have staff throughout the year, Haney said.
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Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City.