The Impacts of the 2024–2025 School Bus Driver Shortage

Students Are Feeling the Effects of the School Bus Driver Shortage During the 2024-2025 School Year

When the 2024–2025 school year started in Louisville, KY, students had a simple question: “Where my bus at?” 

On August 7th, a day before school was slated to start at Louisville’s Jefferson County Public Schools, The Real Young Prodigys, a music group helmed by Hip Hop N2 Learning, an arts and learning nonprofit, released a music video titled “Where My Bus At?” that’s racked up 67,000 views. 

“I’m a good kid; I stay in class, too. Teachers want me to succeed, but I can’t get to school,” one of the students raps in the video, highlighting the growing frustration students, parents, and school transportation officials all feel over the persistent school bus driver shortage. 

• The Impacts of the School Bus Driver Shortage
• The Negative Effects on Students 
• How Can We Get Students Safely and Efficiently to School? 

The Impacts of the School Bus Driver Shortage

A Growing Problem 

Our 2024 State of School Transportation Report found that 91% of respondents — made up of school and district leaders and transportation professionals  — are experiencing a driver shortage in their district. Sixty percent of school leaders say the driver shortage has been severe enough to require shortened or reduced routes. 

While this isn’t a new problem by any means (there’s a reason EdWeek titled their 2024 piece on the subject Schools Don’t Have Enough Bus Drivers to Start the School Year—Again), it is growing. In 2021, only 78% of our survey respondents reported feeling constrained by a driver shortage.

Real-World Examples 

• In Kanawha County, West Virginia, bus drivers are being forced to do double runs to get all students to school safely. This leads to longer wait times for morning pickup and sometimes causes students to miss chunks of their first-period classes. 
• In Hawaii, suspending around 150 bus routes due to the school bus driver shortage has started impacting parents and local businesses. Pacific Flora Exchange told Hawaii News Now that 20% of their staff have had to start missing parts of their workday to transport their children. 
• In addition to the driver shortage, old buses plague the transportation fleet in Georgia’s Richmond County. In a State Affairs investigation, students complained about frequent bus breakdowns, which have caused them to miss free hot breakfasts and classes. They also report that, in some cases, their grades are suffering.  
• In Maine, facing bus route cancellations, two parents quit their jobs and pursued their CDLs so their children’s school year wouldn’t be interrupted. 
• In Tampa, photos a parent shared of students sitting four in a seat and spilling into aisles went viral. "The reality of the situation is we’re not going to leave a child standing,” a school representative told a local Fox News affiliate, meaning they won’t leave a child standing at the bus stop if the bus is already too full. “So, is there going to be overcrowding on some buses? We do everything we can to mitigate that problem. But if we pull up to a bus stop to pick up students, and they're standing, we cannot leave them.”

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The Negative Effects on Students

Chronic Absenteeism 

According to additional data from our State of School Transportation Report, over 44% of school leaders identify transportation challenges as contributing to chronic absenteeism, and more than 21% report that transportation challenges are the most significant contributors to chronic absenteeism in their schools. 

Ripple Effects on Families and Caregivers 

The report also finds that the adverse effects of the school bus driver shortage extend beyond the students, rippling into the lives of families. 

• 79% of parents report driving their children to and from school or relying on a family member. More than half say they stress about their students’ transportation needs at least once a week, with 29% reporting they worry about it daily.
• Over half of surveyed parents admitted that driving their children to and from school has negatively affected their careers, forcing them to adjust work schedules, decline promotions, or even forgo job opportunities altogether.

The bottom line is that getting kids to school is much different now and is very challenging. When you also consider that not all families have regular access to a vehicle and that many districts rely partially on public transportation (which comes with its own challenges), one realizes it's a more nuanced issue facing families and transportation officials. 

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How Can We Get Students to School? 

As the Real Young Prodigys say, “Wheels on the bus go round and round; can’t get to school from across the town.” However, that’s not necessarily the case, as school districts and transportation officials start innovating on multimodal transportation solutions. 

By working together, schools, districts, policymakers, and transportation companies can create a more stable and efficient system that gets students to school safely. 

This entails looking at more future-ready solutions. HopSkipDrive’s network of professional CareDrivers and our RoutewiseAI™software work in tandem with bus fleets to help ensure that all students get to school safely and on time. This multimodal approach to school transportation is more agile and flexible than relying solely on buses — and it is already proving to be an effective solution for school districts such as Colorado Springs School District 11. 

 If your district seeks transportation solutions, you may benefit from a partnership with HopSkipDrive.