By Caitlyn Freeman and Justine Borneman
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
The school bus driver shortage that’s affecting school systems nationwide is causing delays, missed pickups and stress for parents across Maryland.
Several school systems, including Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, are experiencing driver shortages as they reenter in-person instruction after a year and a half of online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Baltimore County, spokesperson Charlie Herndon said the school system has approximately 800 bus drivers total but is 40 drivers short of being fully staffed. He added that the school system has a “number of routes” that it had to “scramble” to cover, but he said he couldn’t give specifics as to which routes.
However, Herndon said BCPS has been able to fill a majority of the vacant positions with temporary drivers and those who hold Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL).
“In some cases, we have had to let parents know buses may be late to stops or late dropping off,” Herndon said.
Angela Hyatt, the parent of BCPS elementary schooler Dominic Dixon, who has autism, said her son’s bus has been inconsistent with pickups. As she explained, during the first three weeks of school, his bus, which is specifically for children with disabilities, was either late picking him up or late bringing him back home.
While the issues with the bus seemed to level out, Dominic’s bus was two hours late one Friday afternoon in September.
However, Hyatt said the issues with buses predate the current school year and began when her son returned to school in May under a hybrid model.
Hyatt said Dominic’s bus didn’t come to pick him up when he returned to school in May, and she spent his first week in discussions with the BCPS transportation department to figure out why he wasn’t being picked up. Once they got the issue resolved, she said the rest of the school year went on without many issues.
However, she said when it came time for her son to go to summer school in July, more issues arose. While BCPS summer school began on July 12, Hyatt said, Dominic wasn’t able to ride the bus until July 16 because it never showed up.
In one case, Hyatt said, Dominic suffered a seizure a day after he sat on a hot bus while his ride home was delayed by two hours.
After spending the weekend at the hospital, doctors determined that his seizure was likely caused by stress brought on by dehydration. Hyatt said Dominic had no previous history of seizures prior to the one that occurred on July 17.
She said she asked the transportation department if they could assure that Dominic would be home within a timely manner. Since the school system couldn’t affirm that, she pulled him out of summer school. Hyatt said she was not given a reason as to why the bus was late.
“I’m disappointed in general with the way that BCPS as a whole has handled everything from when they went back in May to right now the entire transportation issue,” Hyatt said. “I’m disappointed because I really thought that they would be able to handle this a lot better. But as a parent, I am furious.”
Herndon said that he could not comment on Hyatt’s claims or specific bus issues but said parents that are having issues with buses have a variety of options to get in contact with the school or the office of transportation.
“For the most part folks have been patient and understanding with this situation,” Herndon said. “Of course, we are going to get complaints and we empathize with those, and we are doing everything we can to answer parent questions and hire as many drivers as we can.”
While her children in BCPS don’t ride the bus, Daya Chaney Webb, a community advocate who runs a Facebook page titled “BCPS Transportation Advocacy,” said the bus driver shortage can be linked to wages.
“So, what I’ve heard from the bus drivers is that they are extremely short-handed, and mainly because of low wages, and the fact that it’s very difficult to retain and recruit new drivers at the
wage that they’re offering,” Chaney Webb said.
According to a posting on the BCPS website, full-time bus drivers have a starting hourly wage of $16.69. The posting states that to be a trainee or substitute driver, applicants must be over 21 years of age, have a CDL and clean driving record.
“We recognize that staffing remains an issue nationally, including in areas across our state,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski’s office said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to engage our regional partners to collaboratively identify best practices in addressing this shared challenge and will continue to offer our support to BCPS as they work to prioritize this issue.”
A few counties over in Anne Arundel, the school system is experiencing significant shortages as well. According to Bob Mosier, an AACPS spokesperson, the 15 bus contractors that service the district are experiencing shortages that cumulatively amount to a shortage of 60 drivers systemwide.
He added that the school system has about 55 in-house drivers that service the special education department and that they’ve made a few of their drivers available to the contractors to help alleviate the current struggles.
The school system updates parents daily during the school week regarding which bus routes are being impacted by the shortage. According to a Facebook post by the school system, at least one or more buses across 50 schools were impacted Thursday morning.
“It’s a huge issue in our county,” Tamara Beger, vice president of the Anne Arundel Council of PTA’s, said.
According to Beger, her daughter attends a magnet high school 21 miles away from their home in Odenton. She said her daughter didn’t get picked up from her bus stop on the first day of school on Sept. 8 and had to be driven back and forth during the first three days of school.
Beger said her daughter no longer has a bus route. Instead, she said her daughter has to be driven to a bus stop approximately seven miles away from Beger’s house. She said there was little to no communication from the school system in advance regarding possible issues with buses before the first day of school.
“Families were blindsided,” Beger said.
In response, Mosier said the district and Superintendent George Arlotto acknowledge the lapse in communication and said the school system should’ve been more proactive.
“We recognize that sentiment and frustration,” Mosier said.
Beger said she feels the bus issues in the Annapolis region are connected to equity. She pointed out that many people in the area are working parents who may not have the option to drive their children to school.
Several of the schools impacted are in the Annapolis area. Mosier said this led the school system to partner with Anne Arundel County and the City of Annapolis to allow high school students to use transit buses to get to and from school free of charge. The school system will be expanding this option to middle schoolers soon.
In response to the statewide shortages, Gov. Larry Hogan is encouraging the Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration to expedite the testing process for commercial driver’s licenses, which is needed to drive a school bus in Maryland.
MDOT hosted a “Bus Drivers’ Day”’ at several branch locations last month to aid in the accessibility of proper testing and credentials.
“Expediting appointments for applicants does not impact the steps required – applicants must first pass the knowledge test after thoroughly studying the CDL manual,” MDOT spokesperson Ashley Millner said in an email. “MDOT MVA is responsible for ensuring CDL applicants and drivers are road ready in compliance with federal and state standards.”