BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The struggles to get students to and from school without delay continues due to that nationwide bus driver shortage. Buffalo Public Schools provided the latest data at the last Board of Education meeting of the year on Wednesday.
"First week of October was really rough, middle of October was better, last week of October was rough," said David Hills, Chief Operating Officer for the district.
But November was better, with fewer students impacted by late buses. They stressed the importance of keeping impact low going into the winter months.
"The superintendent was clear that we cannot have a situation where we take steps back in the winter as we have in other years, we have to continue to provide buses and drivers for students in the morning," said Hills.
It appears morning pick up is going better than afternoon drop off, as shown in the graph below in red.
School officials say it's a situation that varies day by day. The graph shows November 10th had zero students impacted.
"No students impacted in the morning, no students impacted in the afternoon, we're hoping to see more of those days," said Hills.
To make that happen, the district is continuing to hire more drivers. There are 10 more now than there were in November for a total of 472 and more than 100 applicants weekly.
To make it through Christmas to February Break, they're bringing 20 drivers from out of state. The goal is to help the most troubled schools, 45, 54, 72, 79 and 80.
