![]() ![]() Likewise, other parents had to change their hours, lose pay and go without sleep - all to sit in their cars, waiting for their children.Īs the bus driver shortage continues, parents and drivers, often women on both sides, have been stretched to the breaking point as they try to do more with less - less time, less money, less help, less of a sense of safety and respect. She says she turned down a job so she could do this. Kaidi had to get there an hour before school ended just to make sure she was near the front. The line backed up for blocks, 40 or 50 cars deep, threading out of the parking lot and down an undulating suburban road. Instead of waiting at her corner with other parents, she spent her afternoons sitting in her car in the pickup line outside school. Meanwhile, Kaidi’s family spent the first two months of school with no bus at all. 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. ![]() This option could be attractive to someone who doesn’t want to drive every day.This article is a collaboration between FiveThirtyEight and The Fuller Project, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on issues that affect women. There have been some concerns from some of our more senior drivers to perhaps retire early, understandably so,” explained district spokesperson Bart Barker.īut Wilson County deals with a shortage almost every year as some drivers just move on.Ĭurrently, the district has about 140 drivers and wants to hire at least 12 more drivers, including substitutes. “There has been a slight uptick in resignations and retirements throughout the summer and it would be easy, quick to blame COVID for those resignations and retirements and that’s not necessarily the case. Some drivers are older and they decided to retire early due to COVID-19. While the pandemic may play a role for some drivers leaving their jobs, Wilson County leaders say it’s not the only reason. However, many drivers have left their jobs during the pandemic and now some districts are facing a driver shortage. (WKRN) - Once it’s safe for kids to go back to school, they’ll need a bus driver to get them there. ![]()
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