5 takeaways from The State of School Transportation 2021 Report
We surveyed a wide range of school transportation staff, as well as Superintendents and those involved in purchasing. The results were eye-opening — enough to fill a comprehensive report!
If you don’t have time to read right now, here are five major takeaways from our State of School Transportation 2021 Report.
1. Bus driver shortages are still a major issue
Overwhelmingly, our respondents’ biggest pain point was clear: the ongoing bus driver shortage. The vast majority of those who participated in the survey said that COVID-19 will exacerbate the shortage, both now and down the road.
Nearly four-fifths (78.46%) of respondents flagged the bus driver shortage as a problem. Only 16.92% of respondents called it a non-issue.
2. Bus driver shortages are the main reason why many school districts believe it will take time before they could resume normal operations.
More than half (55%) of school districts with populations between 25,000 – 100,000 students believed it could take three months or more to resume normal transportation operations.
Bus driver shortages
Hybrid schedules
Not enough substitute bus drivers
Bell times, etc.
3. The majority of respondents think general education services will stay the same as pre-COVID
While bus driver shortages and budgets are an issue, the vast majority — 61.54% of respondents — will not increase or decrease general education services in the 2021 – 2022 school year.
4. The four biggest pain points for school transportation staff were:
COVID-19 related issues
Staffing
Funding constraints
School bus utilization
5. Purchasing for the 2021-2022 school year may be delayed due to budget constraints, but hiring won’t.
School budgets will delay 40% of respondents from purchasing new vehicles next year. One thing that won’t be put on hold: hiring, likely due to the severity of the bus driver shortage.
