Now, Young said, she’s paying $140 a week, out of pocket, for an Uber or Lyft to transport her son to school. She said she was told essentially, “there’s nothing we can do.” Her son is one of around 500 students in Camden who still don’t have secured transportation from the district. Young said she tried calling school officials to explain her son tore ligaments in his ankle over the summer and needs crutches and a medical boot, and that mass transit is not an option for him. In Camden - a district under state control - Serita Young said she was told just before classes started that a bus would not be available to take her son to the new Camden High School, but that he could get tickets to use NJ Transit to get himself to school. New Jersey has not yet presented a statewide plan, though individual districts are patching together fixes where they can, including offering parents cash to transport their kids and launching social media campaigns to recruit community members to apply for CDLs. Larry Hogan created a “Bus Drivers’ Day at the MVA” to streamline appointment scheduling for bus driver trainees. Kathy Hochul is targeting the onerous licensing process, the School District of Philadelphia is paying parents to drive their kids and Maryland Gov. Charlie Baker activated the National Guard, New York Gov. Some drivers quit when mask and vaccine mandates were issued by state and federal leaders.Īcross the country, states and school districts are frantically trying to find solutions to the shortage - Massachusetts Gov. Now, with the Delta variant raging across the country, drivers are even more reluctant to board an enclosed vehicle with 50 potentially-unvaccinated kids who may or may not abide by mask mandates. Even before the pandemic, many districts struggled to contract with companies as drivers with Commercial Drivers Licenses were being lured away to jobs with higher pay, better benefits and more regular hours. To be sure, bus driver shortages are nothing new. The shortage of drivers is just one more obstacle schools and parents have faced this school year in addition to mask mandates, structural building issues and learning loss brought about by the pandemic, as well as flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. The state Department of Education did not respond to multiple requests for comment or to answer questions about how many districts they’ve heard from with busing issues.īut a review of local news stories, district websites and parent Facebook groups reveals kids in Glassboro, Camden, Paterson, Deptford, Jersey City, Wayne, Toms River and dozens of other districts have been left waiting for hours or were never picked up at all. It’s unclear how widespread the driver shortage is in New Jersey. Three weeks into the school year, parents and school leaders say the shortage is becoming a crisis and they’re demanding the state take action. Other kids on the bus were crying.Īmid a nationwide bus driver shortage, many New Jersey families say they‘ve been worn down by endless lengthy delays, no-show drivers and poor communication from districts. Tuttle said Max was hungry but otherwise calm. Finally, at about 6 p.m., a minibus carrying Max and other children arrived and dropped him off.
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