School Bus Shortage: 21,000 Fewer Drivers in Five Years

The United States lost 21,176 school bus drivers between August 2019 and August 2025. The total workforce dropped from 223,252 to 202,076 during that period.

This represents a nearly 10% decline over five years. Districts across the country are currently managing operations with fewer drivers than they had before the pandemic.

The shortage has created immediate problems for families. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, thousands of students attended school remotely for three days in April 2026 due to a lack of drivers. In South Carolina, the state's largest district sent more than 7,000 delay notifications to parents during the first 10 weeks of the 2025-2026 school year.

Victoria Encarnacion in Waterbury, Connecticut, described the daily stress of the situation. Her daughter waited outside for a bus that never arrived. The child walked to multiple stops for an hour before giving up and walking home. Encarnacion said her daughter called her and said, 'Mom, I quit.' The mother said these missed pickups happen about once a month.

Mark Medina, a regional director with the National Association for Pupil Transportation, said drivers often feel trapped in a lose-lose situation. He noted that once a driver obtains a commercial driver's license, they can move to other industries that pay more. Medina said the association is working to secure retirement cap waivers and tax relief to help retain staff.

He also pointed to split shifts and changes in risk factors for an older workforce as reasons why returning to pre-pandemic numbers is difficult. Medina stated that the school transportation world has a figure it out attitude and that the industry will be all right if that mindset continues.

Lawmakers introduced the Driving Forward Act in 2025 to remove a specific training barrier. The bill would exempt school bus drivers from the requirement to identify engine parts and how they work. Current rules mandate this knowledge for all commercial driver's license holders, a requirement designed for long-haul trucking. Lawmakers say the exemption would save three or four days of training. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said the change would not affect safety.