LOUISVILLE, Ky. — School districts across Kentucky are offering incentives to tackle the school bus driver shortage. Higher pay, bonuses and paid commercial driver’s license training are among the incentives being offered.

Even though the school year hasn’t started, school districts say they are hiring.

What You Need To Know

  • Kentucky school districts are tackling bus driver shortages by offering incentives

  • Higher pay, bonuses and covering CDL costs are some of the incentives

  • Some districts are making logistical changes because they have fewer bus drivers

  • Even though school hasn’t started, school districts are hiring bus drivers now

Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) may merge school bus routes again this year like they did last school year.

“Combining potentially two or three routes into one or two routes, which meant buses might be more crowded, but we were able to achieve the end result of transporting the same number of students with fewer buses,” explained Chief Operations Officer of JCPS, Chris Perkins. 

Pre-pandemic, Perkins said JCPS had about 900 drivers.

“That enabled us to not only cover the routes but also to build in a little bit of a buffer for unanticipated outages when someone calls in sick, if you will,” Perkins said.

Last year, route consolidation meant JCPS could adequately transport students with under 800 bus drivers.

“While we weren’t as efficient with our services as we would’ve liked to have been last year because of that driver shortage, we remained committed to ensuring that we transported all of our students to and from school safely every day,” Perkins said.

To hire more bus drivers, JCPS is keeping last year’s incentives, offering $6 more per hour in pay. Plus, drivers are eligible for the district’s $1,000 continuity bonus.

“Even if we were to exceed the number of routes that we have to cover by X amount of additional drivers, all that is going to do is make our service quality even that much better,” he added.

However, Kentucky’s largest school district isn’t the only one needing drivers. It’s a nationwide issue, which means other Kentucky schools are feeling the impact, too.

Oldham County is changing middle and high school start times by 15 minutes because of the district’s bus driver shortage.

Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) is also hiring bus drivers. With only five weeks left before school starts, the district posted on its Facebook page that it needs bus drivers. 

WCPS is offering a $2,500 sign-on bonus for drivers with their CDL. Otherwise, expenses are covered to get a CDL in order to become a bus driver. Plus, there is a $500 signing bonus after 90 days of work. 

Fayette, Boone and Jefferson county public school districts also cover CDL training costs.

Ideally, Perkins would like to hire 100 to 200 more JCPS bus drivers, but he said he is more confident heading into this school year versus last year.

“Just because we know that we’ve been able to adapt and overcome some circumstances and challenges that were unprecedented,” he said.

Bottom line, he said, the district will get kids to school safely, no matter what.

If you’re interested in becoming a bus driver, click on your interested school district to be taken to its bus driver hiring page. 

If your school district isn’t listed, just call your local district to find out if they are hiring because chances are they need bus drivers, too. Many school districts will cover the cost for someone interested in becoming a bus driver to get their CDL.