NEW ORLEANS — School bus companies were able to get New Orleans city permits for the vast majority of about 700 yellow school buses during the first two weeks of the school year, but a nationwide driver shortage continues to vex schools and parents across the region.
In response, the New Orleans public school district has eliminated reduced capacity limits implemented last year, and some charter school operators are offering incentives to parents to find other means of transportation for their kids.
The city of New Orleans’ Ground Transportation Bureau has approved 642 school buses for New Orleans’ 85 public charter schools, up from 472 last week.
But city records also show fewer than 500 drivers have up-to-date permits to operate those buses.
There are 238 drivers with pending applications, according to city data provided to WWL-TV in response to a public records request. The data show another 238 drivers – coincidentally the same number as those with pending applications – who received permits in 2019 when the city first started regulating school buses but have since allowed those permits to expire without applying for a renewal.
The lack of drivers and buses has put a strain on many of the 48 charter management organizations that run the city’s 85 public schools. New Orleans Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Tiffany Delcour said Thursday the district is now allowing buses to ride at 100 percent of capacity, eliminating a 75-percent capacity restriction implemented when the pandemic hit last school year.
She also said the buses must follow seating charts for contact tracing in case a student tests positive for COVID-19.
New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis said the buses are operating safely, with masks required and windows kept open.
“We’re not packing a bus,” Lewis said in response to questions from WWL-TV. “We have protocols in place and balancing between families bringing students to school and various other options, the buses that we have on the street with our children are in full compliance with the guidelines we have set here at NOLA Public Schools.”
Lewis also praised the schools for “getting creative” to deal with the shortage and still comply with health and safety protocols.
KIPP New Orleans, which uses two bus companies to serve its nine schools in the city, went so far as to offer $100 stipends to parents if they would avoid the yellow buses and arrange for their children’s transportation to and from school.
“For the next month, families at our impacted schools who choose to drive their students to school are eligible for $100 transportation stipend,” KIPP spokesman Kevin Barnes said. “Many families choosing to drive students to school have expressed gratitude for the additional assistance which helps alleviate some of the burden.”
Barnes said 813 students have taken the stipend so far, helping to reduce the number of students riding buses from about 4,650 to about 3,100. He said the bus companies only have enough drivers to operate 62 buses, for an average of about 50 students per bus.
KIPP has a contract with First Student, a national transportation company that acknowledged it was having trouble hiring drivers. It’s been recruiting new drivers with signing bonuses and the ability to bring their own children with them on the bus.
InspireNOLA, which hired First Student for transportation to and from its eight schools, sent notices to parents last week asking for patience after parents complained that buses weren’t showing up to pick up their children in the mornings.
Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle Orleans, which operates two public school campuses that offer a French immersion curriculum, had to push back the start of its academic year because of “a recent, unforeseeable, and untimely issue with our transportation company.” Parents received that notice on Aug. 11, the day before school was supposed to start.
The Lycee Francais governing board did not provide a copy of its transportation contract when WWL-TV requested it Aug. 11, in apparent violation of state public records laws. It also did not answer the station’s specific questions about the number of buses and drivers it had available. It did issue a statement on its website saying its bus vendor “is working to secure more buses to operate all routes as planned.”
It also sent an email statement to WWL-TV saying, in part: “Our team has worked tirelessly to consolidate bus routes to provide transportation for our students due to bus shortages.”
