(The Hill) – With issues ranging from driver shortages to bullying, parents are increasingly stepping up to ensure their children get to school, placing additional strain on those who are working caretakers.
The 2025 State of School Transportation report, a study by the Associated Press-NORC Center in collaboration with HopSkipDrive, reveals that 63 percent of parents are driving their children to school, while merely 43 percent rely on school buses for their kids’ commute.
According to the report published this month, 35 percent of parents have missed work due to school drop-offs, about 3 in 10 have declined opportunities because of their child’s transportation needs, and 11 percent have lost their jobs to accommodate driving their students to school.
An early 2023 Federal Highway Administration survey reflected even fewer students using school buses: Just 28 percent of U.S. students were bused according to that poll, a decline from around 36 percent in 2017.
“It really places parents in a dilemma—trying to make the right choice while depending on unreliable or unsafe transportation, yet also needing to retain their job to support their families,” said Keri Rodrigues, President of the National Parents Union.
Rodrigues said this academic year, it took until day four for her children to get on the bus. The first three days, it never showed up.
“I took action myself by emailing the principal. Fortunately, I was in town, had a car, and could resort to Uber if necessary. But not all parents have that luxury,” she continued.
One of the biggest problems with school transportation is the school bus driver shortage that has been a problem for some districts for years.
The shortage of school bus drivers has been an issue for years. The latest AP-NORC report found 80 percent of school administrators say it’s a problem for them, and 46 percent say it’s a major one. Of parents who drive their kids to school, 32 percent say buses aren’t available in their area, compared to 20 percent who say it’s easier to drive and 14 percent who cite safety concerns.
“There’s a lot of unsupervised time for kids on buses, and that is when a lot of instances of bullying happened. Kids are put into very dangerous situations. So, I think parents actually have very deep concern about unsupervised time on buses,” Rodgriues said.
The driver shortages have been attributed to factors including a changing workforce, behavioral problems from students, licensing issues and problems with pay and scheduling, as drivers face rough hours with often underwhelming compensation.
“School-student transportation really varies by state, and it varies by state in terms of budgeting and the rules of that state. So, there are some states that if you live more than a mile away from a school district, you’re eligible for transportation, and other districts that have larger or have a greater distance required for transportation,” said Molly McGee-Hewitt, executive director and CEO of the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
“I think it is great when parents can drive their kids to school. I don’t think it is the safest way for our students to get to school. I think all of the research shows that the yellow school bus is truly the safest form of student transportation,” she added.
Some districts have outsourced the transportation responsibility to third-party companies such as HopSkipDrive, which collaborated with the AP and NORC Center on the latest report.
Joanna McFarland, CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, said the company works with 13,000 school districts in 17 states on alternative transportation.
“We help school districts by supplementing the school bus with small vehicle transportation, and we do that with a network of highly vetted caregivers on wheels that we call care drivers, who are parents, grandparents, nurses, babysitters, etc., people from the community that are helping get kids to and from school,” McFarland said.
“We require care drivers to have caregiving experience. And, on average, caregiver drivers on our platform have more than 10 years of caregiving experience. So, these are drivers who are used to working with kids and who approach that with empathy,” she added.
The lack of buses can mean kids miss out, too: 54 percent of parents in the report say they are more likely to sign up their children for more extracurricular activities if easier transportation options are available.
“On time, reliable transportation is key,” Rodrigues said. “Number two, making sure the buses are safe places for kids.”
“Adding additional personnel, adding cameras so that kids know that they’re being monitored and that they’re going to be held accountable for their behavior on the bus is really important […] And then finally, communicating with parents and families,” she added. “Schools have to do better to listening to parents around why these situations are so problematic to the point where they’ve got to take it into their own hands and find their own solutions, which unfortunately, can mean severe consequences, like getting in trouble at work, and sometimes you can lose your job.”
