Hochul Announces Plan To Address School Bus Driver Shortage

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York is taking steps to address a mounting shortage of school bus drivers across the state.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday announced several short-term and long-term initiatives, including opening up new testing sites for commercial drivers license applicants, expediting the testing and permitting process and conducting outreach to law enforcement, firefighters, military and other organizations that already have trained drivers.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the driver shortage, a state transportation association's study two years ago found that eight in 10 school transportation directors considered driver shortages a major concern.

A lack of drivers can lead to delayed departures and arrivals and the cancellation of field trips and other extracurricular activities.