A recent report revealed that a shortage of school bus drivers at school districts throughout New York state, including the Syracuse City School District, has negatively affected students.

The February report from the New York State School Boards Association found that about 75 percent of school transportation directors in the state said they had an insufficient number of bus drivers at some point in the 2017-18 school year. Of those directors, 80 percent reported that the shortage of bus drivers was their No. 1 concern or a major concern.

Theresa Kuss, transportation director for SCSD, said Syracuse has felt the state-wide shortage. She said the district uses a contractor to hire bus drivers but has had trouble retaining drivers for the past three or four years.

“The pay is decent, but the benefits are poor,” Kuss said. “We lose drivers to other school districts because they have benefits and retirement.”

Kuss said student attendance suffers as a result of the shortage. Buses often arrive late or not at all, and some students return home after giving up on waiting, she said.

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Thirty-nine percent of school transportation directors in the area encompassing Onondaga County said bus driver shortages have gotten significantly worst in the last three years, per the report.

The report also found that about 80 percent of transportation directors said the length of shifts and rate of pay many bus drivers receive are factors in the shortage. Average annual wage for bus drivers in 2017 was just more than $43,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“School bus drivers, when you look at the level of responsibility they have, are severely underpaid,” said Kathy Furneaux, executive director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute. The Pupil Transportation Safety Institute is a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to support school transporters in the United States.

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As more jobs have become available in recent years, people have stopped driving school buses and instead search for jobs that have higher pay or better align with their education, she said.

Furneaux said the largest effect of the shortage is that school districts have turned to school bus mechanics or transportation managers to fill in for absent drivers, which can pose a safety issue to students.

“They may cut corners on the route because they’re pressed for time and they need to get back and do their real job,” Furneaux said.

Paul Heiser, a senior research analyst at the New York State School Boards Association who worked on the report, said fewer bus drivers also creates longer routes, which can delay the arrival and departure times of buses. Field trips and extracurricular activities often have to be canceled, he said. In some cases, students and families are even forced to find their own way to get to school, he added.

The report included several recommendations to help increase the number of bus drivers across the state.

Surveys conducted for the report revealed that people between the ages of 18 and 29 are most interested in potentially working as bus drivers, but they’re often not targeted by bus driver hiring initiatives, Heiser said.

He said school districts could begin to reach out to younger workers. Many of the proposed solutions would be relatively easy to implement, but would require the “will” of the school district, he added.

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Furneaux said there is a disconnect between bus drivers and school districts. She said that school bus drivers aren’t treated with the same level of respect as teachers, and this makes people less interested in becoming bus drivers.

“When you think about school bussing, for many years they have not been viewed as having a direct impact on the quality of the education of students, when in fact if you can’t get the students there, that certainly has a huge impact,” Furneaux said.

Published on February 24, 2019 at 8:48 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu