Single mom Shakira Hemphill says she made at least 85 round trips driving her son to and from his school near the District of Columbia since last year. The region where she lives, as with much of the country, is dealing with a severe shortage of school bus drivers. Routes have been consolidated; pick-up and drop-off times have been pushed to earlier and later in the day.
Last school year, the bus, when it did show up, would take several hours to get to and from a special school 50 miles away. Hemphill’s son Elijah, 18, has intellectual disabilities and is nonverbal, and he’s entitled to public school services until he’s 21. The prolonged rides sometimes forced him to soil his pants, she said. Once a fan of school, Elijah told Hemphill that he didn’t want to go there, that it took too long. She’s since transferred him to another school.
While national data for 2023 aren’t yet available, a USA TODAY analysis of news coverage and local statistics found at least one instance of a major school bus driver shortage in every state this year, from Hawaii to New York. In Chicago, most routes are suspended for the upcoming school year, and across Virginia, districts are desperately trying to find emergency drivers. In Louisville, Kentucky, school bus route problems stemming from staff shortages forced the district to disrupt the school year just after it began.
