Stress levels continue to rise as the begging of the school year edges closer. Late last month, Chicago Public Schools announced the shortage of bus drivers have caused them to issue out venture cards for students to get to school. The ones who will be prioritized on the school bus route are those with disabilities and temporary living situations.
This means many parents are now looking for alternate ways to get their children to school. Ultimately, the situation will cost family’s additional money and add extra stress to their day. Purely because they now have to change routines which could cause other daily tasks to not be fulfilled. For some, it could cost them financial stability, as they wouldn’t be able to work certain shifts.
Rising Stress Levels
The stress over the lack of bus drivers started in 2021. This is when youth were allowed to come back to school after COVID-19 shutdown the world. Last year, the bus driver shortage caused the district to extend bus routes by 90 minutes. Which forced many students to wake up around 5 a.m. in order to get to school on time. This year they are trying to keep travel time for students to an hour.
To help offset financial stress, CPS is giving children with special needs or are homeless and haven’t been routed $25 per school day. Or these families can choose to receive a stipend of up to $500. Roughly 3,000 families have already chosen to take the stipend. Last year, less than 1,000 families chose to take that route.
Reasons Why
Some reasons why there is a shortage of bus drivers is due to the fact many applicants cannot pass the background check. “We’ll get some 2,000 applications in a given season, and due to background check issues, we’re only able to hire maybe 200 to 300 – maybe 400 [drivers],” said the assistant manager at First Student, Brendyn Morgan. The background checks are so in-depth that some things popping up happened when the applicant was 17 years old.
State law requires that bus drivers complete a fingerprint-based background check. This includes checks of sex offender registries and the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth registry. Applicants also can’t have a conviction for a range of serious offenses. For example, criminal sexual assault, hate crimes, kidnapping, robbery, and murder. Additionally, they cannot have drug charges, which include marijuana. They check that record going back 20 years.
While stress levels continue to rise over transportation issues, many are hopeful things will go off without a hitch.
Written by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
WBEZ: Chicago Public Schools families left without a bus ride to class face ‘enormous stress’ as first day nears
CBS News Chicago: CPS still experiencing bus driver shortage
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Mike Shaheen‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Supersonic Criminal‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
