Low pay, bad behavior and competing cash: Why NC schools struggle to hire bus drivers

School bus drivers in some of North Carolina’s biggest counties are being driven away by disjointed workdays, low wages and unruly kids — a brew of factors leading them to higher-paying commercial driving jobs. The scenario is leaving school districts struggling to service routes and scrambling to get kids to school on time.

Urban school systems are reporting major staffing shortages; some are struggling to fill almost one-third of their positions, even as more drivers on North Carolina roads become qualified to drive commercial vehicles. Meanwhile, some longtime drivers are hitting the exits.

“People who probably would have worked longer are retiring,” said Rachel Wells, recording secretary for Teamsters Local 391, which represents bus drivers and other school employees in and around Wake and Guilford County, home to two of the state’s biggest school districts. “They’re just tired. They don’t want to deal with it any longer.”

School officials have tried to keep drivers and lure new ones by raising pay and beefing up bonuses. In Wake County, bus drivers will soon receive twice-monthly paychecks instead of one monthly paycheck — fixing what was a financial-planning bugaboo for some drivers and deal-breaker for candidates. But those solutions haven’t been enough to overcome the challenges.

Competition for workers with commercial drivers licenses — which school bus drivers must have — is stiff, especially as ecommerce has expanded and as consumers have come to expect quicker deliveries. Demand for cross-country or regional truck drivers is surging, and pay is much higher for those drivers than for school bus drivers. Ditto for light truck drivers — the kind who make quick trips in smaller trucks.

The industry is expected to add 142,000 drivers in the next 10 years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And median pay for a year-round job is higher than what a school bus driver would make in a 10-month school year. That median pay is about $19 per hour in Raleigh, which adds up to $38,000 annually.

Some driving or delivery companies are offering $25 per hour or more for starting drivers. That’s a big deal for many early-career school bus drivers, who usually earn less than that.

“You’re moving up much quicker to getting top pay,” Wells said. There may not be much in the way of raises in private sector jobs after a handful of years, she said, but the wages can still be relatively high and people will opt for the higher pay earlier on in their careers. Public salary scales and benefits don’t have the same appeal.

And the private sector can more swiftly respond to staffing challenges, without having to go through as many bureaucratic hoops to afford them.

Seeking consistency

The problem is particularly acute in the more urban counties in the state.

Stephanie Daye, a bus driver for 37 years, plans to retire with Durham Public Schools. If the job market had been this competitive 15 years ago, “I would have left,” she said.

Pay for Durham Public Schools tops out at $27.32 per hour, with 30 years of experience. She estimates that at least three-quarters of her fellow drivers have a second job.

“The cost of living is really, really high,” Daye said. “And our pay is not.”

Many Durham bus drivers are moving to neighboring counties, where the cost of living can be cheaper, Daye said. Then, they sometimes find other commercial driving work in those counties, with shorter commutes.

Bus-driving is a good job if you like kids, she said. It’s stable and comes with good benefits.But the starting wage needs to be $25 per hour if school systems want to compete with the private sector and some public-sector driving jobs, Daye said.

A raise approved this year will give Wake County school bus drivers $20 per hour in their first year and 25-cent-per-hour annual raises after that. After five years, they’ll earn $21.25.

GoTriangle, a regional transit service, starts pay at $20.64 per hour, raising it each year until an employee hits $31.50 per hour after four years. To attract drivers, the service is offering $2,500 sign-on bonuses and free training. Drivers can also earn safety and customer service bonuses throughout the year.

A Wake County school bus driver must work 46 or more years to earn a wage of $31.50 per hour for the 10-month school year — a schedule that often requires summer employment. Bonuses can total up to $3,000 in a single year for perfect attendance — a near-impossible feat for even the healthiest person in a job that requires close contact with germy children. They can also earn a $1,000 retention bonus.

Keree Moore, who has driven school buses in Wake County for 19 years, would rather see that money in the form of regular pay. “When it looks like we’re asking for raises, we want to see something that’s consistent,” Moore said.

The state, which funds most school employees, pays $15 per hour minimum and $24.77 per hour maximum for school bus drivers. Starting wages are often higher in individual school systems because county commissioners approve local budget increases that allow school boards to pay drivers more.

“Being a bus driver can be rewarding,” Moore said. “I think it takes a special person.”

Scheduling shifts

North Carolina school systems reported about 13% of their bus driver positions — about 1,600 of about 12,300 positions — were vacant in 2023, according to a North Carolina Department of Public Instruction survey.

In Wake County schools since June 2023, the district has hired 148 new drivers — after losing 130 drivers over the same time period. The division typically has about 570 drivers.

Hiring more drivers could mean shorter commute times or closer bus stops for some students. Or more reliable service if more substitute drivers are available.

Part of the challenge for urban school systems comes from how they schedule their drivers.

In urban districts, staggered schedules leave drivers shuttling as many as three bus loads to different schools every morning and afternoon, with a couple hours’ break in the middle. They’re often assigned only 30 hours per week, but they can pick up extra hours doing things such as field trips.

That allows them to be full-time and earning benefits, which many drivers want.

But the schedule can be challenging, often stretching from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. And the midday gap isn’t long enough for many to work another job.

That leaves one interest — wanting a full-time benefits package — competing against another: wanting higher pay.

So many drivers say they work weekend or late-night shifts delivering food or driving for a ride-share service such as Uber or Lyft.

The staggered shifts, creating full-time work, are better for recruiting than part-time work, said Jack Hoke, executive director of the North Carolina School Superintendents Association.

“The issue with bus drivers is pay — 100%,” said Hoke, a retired long-time superintendent of Alexander County Schools. His organization surveyed every school system this August and found 1,315 bus driver vacancies. DPI hasn’t released the results of its latest survey yet.

Moore had a part-time side job before her children were grown. She quit when her kids started living on their own, but now she’s thinking about getting another one.

“Can I go to Walmart and work more than 30 hours? Can I make more than that somewhere else?” Moore said. “Can I go somewhere and make more money, or equal to, and get paid every two weeks? You’re still dealing with the public, but you’re not dealing with children.”

Finding full employment for bus drivers is a little easier in rural districts, where it’s not uncommon for a driver to start the day with a single route before working the rest of the day at that school as a teaching assistant or cafeteria worker and then driving students home at the end of the day. Employees don’t always love having both tasks, Wells said, but driver vacancy rates are often lower in rural counties.

That system has its hurdles, too.

Requiring school-based staff to drive buses can irk existing employees who don’t want to do it. It can also deter applicants for school-based jobs, according to a 2018 Department of Public Instruction study.

But many rural and small school systems wouldn’t be able to cover every bus route unless they issued the requirement, the study found.

Addressing student behavior

Becoming a school bus driver isn’t for everyone, drivers said.Some routes are tough, especially without bus monitors or safety assistants to watch over the students while the driver focuses on the road.

And if low pay doesn’t deter applicants, rowdy students might.

“If the discipline can be taken care of and the pay be taken care of, I think it could be a real good job. I really do,” said Daye, the Durham driver. “And I think that a person would like that type of job.”

Schools often discipline students at school for things they did on the bus, such as an in-school suspension, but may not suspend the student from the bus itself.

That leaves many drivers feeling like the discipline issue was never resolved.

“It’s a lot of us having to prove ourselves,” Moore said. “It’s your word against a child’s word.”

Sometimes parents get involved if a principal tries to discipline a student for inappropriate bus behavior.

“They're under pressure from the parents,” Daye said of school administration. Parents say, “‘My kid is not doing this’ or ‘Why are you picking on mine?’ And then they call downtown” system administrators and complain about the school principal.

Getting the school system and school board members involved gets politics involved, Daye said.

Some students have always misbehaved, Moore said, but “the level of respect has totally changed.” Children aren’t treating adults like authority figures, she said, and parents need to police that.

“I’m all about consequences for your actions,” Moore said.

Moore tells students not to curse and sets other expectations. If she hears them, and they start getting out of control, she’ll talk to the students. Some apologize to her. Some don’t. “They don’t care,” she said.

Moore understands that some kids would struggle to get to school at all if they were suspended from riding the bus, and she knows the ultimate fear for the school is that the child will fall behind academically if they can’t get to school. But she thinks schools could issue gradual punishments before suspending someone from the bus.

“After a while,” she said, “that parent should be really talking to that child about how they need to behave.”

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What are counties doing?

WRAL News recently asked school systems how many bus driver positions were vacant and what measures they had taken or planned to take on bus driver recruitment and retention. Sixteen systems responded. Here’s what they said:

• The Wake County Public School System has adjusted its bonuses to be more frequent and earlier in the school year and raised pay every year for the last few years. The system has increased advertising and put more people in charge of hiring. It will reach $20 per hour starting out this year. It reported 304 vacancies out of 882 driver positions this year, although it has reduced its routes to just 539 this year.
• Cumberland County Schools conducted a salary study and raised pay. It reported no vacancies in 2023, but a district spokesman told WRAL News this year that some schools don’t have a substitute if a driver calls out.
• Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools raised bus driver starting pay to $20 per hour, which spokesman Andy Jenks credited with improving staffing levels. Jenks said the system had just two vacancies out of 58 driver positions at the end of the last school year.
• Orange County Schools has begun offering sign-on, referral, perfect-attendance and retention bonuses. The system reported eight vacancies out of 50 to WRAL News in the spring, after reporting none to the state in 2023.
• Franklin County Schools offers two bonuses totaling $1,000 per year, although the bonuses are being evaluated as temporary federal funds that paid for them dry up. The system reported four vacancies among 102 driver positions to WRAL News in the spring, after reporting two to the state in 2023.
• Person County Schools raised driver wages and held job fairs. None of its 62 drivers positions was vacant in the spring, when WRAL News requested staffing data. Six were vacant in 2023.
• Granville County Schools added bonuses and raised pay for bus drivers. None of its 104 bus driver positions was vacant in the spring or in 2023.
• Hoke County Schools raised driver starting pay to $18 per hour, and drivers now get two supplements per year, instead of just one. A one-time bonus won’t continue. The school system reported no vacancies in 2023 but told WRAL in the spring that six of 96 positions were vacant.
• Public Schools of Robeson County is relying on state driver pay raises and urging employees to take on bus routes. Officials reported 54 vacancies to the state in 2023 but told WRAL News in the spring that 13 of 232 positions were vacant.
• Warren County Schools didn’t provide any local increases to driver pay above the $15 per hour starting pay provided by the state. But it has been offering bonuses to drivers since 2022 that officials believe has helped attract and keep drivers. It reported just one vacancy out of 33 driver positions to WRAL News in the spring.
• Duplin County Schools added a one-time retention bonus and is otherwise relying on wage increases from the state to help hire and keep drivers. The district reported 10 vacancies out of 106 driver positions to WRAL News in the spring, after reporting eight to the state in 2023.
• Lee County Schools raised bus driver pay and reported just three of its 130 driver positions as vacant in the spring, after reporting none to the state in 2023.
• Moore County Schools added bonuses for bus drivers and increased advertising. The district reported eight of 87 driving positions as vacant in the spring, after reporting 29 vacancies among 104 drivers to the state in 2023.
• Vance County Schools offered one-time bonuses to drivers. It reported eight vacancies among 67 bus driver positions in the spring, after reporting 14 to the state in 2023.
• Wayne County Schools raised pay, offered bonuses, and began reimbursing drivers for their annual physicals and applicants for their commercial driver licenses. Officials reported 29 vacancies out of 144 driver positions to WRAL News in the spring.
• Clinton City Schools has been encouraging its instructional assistants to get commercial drivers licenses so that they can drive kids to and from their school. The district reported two vacancies to WRAL News in the spring.