![]() ![]() "Our staggered start time really goes against what research says for high school students and that is to start them later." ![]() Niagara Falls superintendent Mark Laurie says staggered start times in his district appear to be the new normal. The Niagara Falls District has adjusted to the shortage with staggered start times, but could this be the solution for other districts?ħ News spoke with officials and a Buffalo parent about efforts to adjust the start times in the Buffalo City School District as well. Laurie also says, "it was usually a job often taken by retirees and retirees are still skeptical about being around a lot of kids and I think that's with respect to their health." He says many can't pass the marijuana drug test, it's a difficult job, there's a lot of competition from companies offering work-from-home positions and many drivers are opting for a career delivering packages instead of the demanding job of caring for children. Niagara Falls Superintendent Mark Laurrie says there are numerous reasons more people aren't getting in line to become bus drivers. ![]() First period now begins 10 minutes earlier.ĭoors open for students at 7:30 at Niagara Falls High School. (WKBW) - A possible solution to the school bus driver shortage is now in motion in one Western New York district.Ĭity schools in Niagara Falls have adjusted their start times. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.BUFFALO, N.Y. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. (SOUNDBITE OF ULRICH SCHNAUSS' "KNUDDELMAUS")Ĭopyright © 2021 NPR. SHAPIRO: The National School Transportation Association has called the school bus driver shortage unprecedented at a national level - yet another unprecedented problem in a year unlike any other. So they've run to us and sought the transportation through the carpool. And in my mind, I'm like, you know what? We don't have to have both of these cars on the road.ĬORNISH: Now El-Amin runs the PiggyBack network, a place where, for a fee, Chicago families can find carpools for their kids.ĮL-AMIN: We've had, unfortunately, a lot of families are running into a situation where they had a bus route scheduled or they had some type of private transportation scheduled, and abruptly, they were canceled. The kids are waving at each other through the window. See, before the pandemic, he started a small carpool network.ĮL-AMIN: I was literally driving on the highway in Chicago for 40 minutes next to another driver that goes to my daughter's school. It's a problem that El-Amin, a software developer, is uniquely positioned to help with. SHAPIRO: Ismael El-Amin has children in the Chicago public school system, which is also experiencing a shortage of bus drivers. ISMAEL EL-AMIN: A few years into parenting, we were juggling. And one problem they've identified - the tests to qualify to drive a bus in Chelsea were only available in English.ĪBEYTA: And so now the test is in different languages, so they've been able to recruit, from what I hear, 50 to 60 drivers. But in education, you can sometimes assume that no news is good news.ĬORNISH: Abeyta feels like her district won't need the National Guard past December because they've been in solutions mode. ![]() Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker loaned Abeyta's district 15 National Guard members to drive students to school until December.ĪBEYTA: I have not heard any complaints, not that that means it's perfect. But transportation is something where we will hear about it from families if transportation isn't working.Īlmi Abeyta is the superintendent of the Chelsea School District in Massachusetts, where 1,500 of the district's 6,000 students rely on school bus transportation. Then, just as most school districts across the country began returning to the classroom, they ran up against another significant barrier - the national shortage of school bus drivers.ĪLMI ABEYTA: We can get the schools ready. First, COVID-19 forced the American education system into remote learning. The pandemic has been hard on students, schools and families over the past three academic years. ![]()
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