Pittsburgh Public Schools Looking For Solutions To Bus Driver Shortage

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - One of our area's largest schools is looking for a solution to a major issue.

Pittsburgh Public School District is facing a bus driver shortage, and it could mean thousands of students not having a ride to school.

According to our news partners at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the district has come up with a few ideas to solve the problem.

They're proposing to increase walk zones around the schools, move more students to Port Authority buses, and adding a multi-tiered bus schedule to adjust start and end times at some schools.

Right now, the district is short over 9,000 bus seats for students when they return to in-person classes in the Fall.

It was just a few months ago, KDKA reported the struggles the district had with a lack of bus seats when some students returned to in-person instruction in the Spring.

With COVID-19, there was a bus driver shortage. However, district officials say the shortage was already in place before the pandemic began, but the pandemic only made it worse.

Pittsburgh Public is not alone.

The bus driver shortage is something other districts in the area have faced as well.