![]() ![]() She’s thinking of quitting, even though she knows that will make things even harder for the families relying on her. And the company that runs the buses has packed her schedule to the point that there’s no longer time left to pee between runs. When parents get angry at a system that isn’t working, they blame Steele. Some, unsure of their own addresses, can’t tell Steele where to go. The route that Steele drove for years was eliminated by the company that operates buses for the district.Ĭraig Lassig / AP IMAGES FOR FIVETHIRTYEIGHT Steele was transferred to a different route with new kids, and sometimes the chaos of route changes and late buses meant she also had to drive kids home from other, equally unfamiliar routes. In October, the district told parents that 12 routes probably wouldn’t be staffed this year. This fall, the shortage became dire enough that Steele’s old route - the one where she knew all the kids well enough to take them to their doorsteps when needed - was consolidated out of existence. Steele said that had been the case for years, though district representatives were quick to point out that there had never been a shortage of this magnitude. Even then there was already a shortage of bus drivers in the district. Even if the bus system wasn’t reliable, the driver was.īut that was last school year. “She helped me, she my kids over here,” Kaidi said. And even though it wasn’t her fault that the bus was late, Steele made sure the kids arrived home safely. Steele knew where the kids on her route lived. It was Roberta Steele, who had driven the school bus in Kaidi’s neighborhood for years, there to bring the two children home. Cold and worried, she eventually carried her younger children back home to get her phone and try to find out what was going on - and that was when she got a knock on the door. Northport Elementary in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, had only recently reopened for in-person classes, and day after day, Kaidi’s family had been struggling with late school bus drop-offs. She stood on the corner near her house, but the bus was nowhere to be seen and there was no word why it was so late. ![]() One day last spring, Naima Kaidi waited nearly an hour for her kindergartener and first-grader to get home from school. "We look forward to continuing working with the Governor to support her short-term steps to get children safely to and from school and long-term strategies to help the industry recruit and retain school bus drivers.This article is a collaboration between FiveThirtyEight and The Fuller Project, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on issues that affect women. "We are hoping this open dialogue will continue as we progress through the school year," Muirhead said in a statement. The organization, which represents private school-bus contractors making up 60% of the school bus market, estimates staffing levels are down 15% to 20% statewide. Charlie Baker last week activated the state's National Guard to help transport school children.Ĭorey Muirhead, president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association, said the changes offered meaningful reform to the process. 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 more children would have to walk to school. Schools across the United States are offering hiring bonuses, providing the training needed to get a commercial driver's license and increasing hourly pay to attract more drivers. Other states are also seeking alternatives in the wake of the shortage. ![]() The shortage of bus drivers is complicating the start of a school year nationwide already besieged by the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19, contentious disagreement over masking requirements, and the challenge of catching up on educational ground lost as the pandemic raged last year. David Christopher, the group's executive director, called the initiative a "tremendous start" in addressing the issue. The New York Association for Pupil Transportation, a school transportation professional group, estimates New York is about 7,500 drivers short of its usual 54,000. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. ![]()
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