Millburn Bus Driver Shortage Leaves Many Students Without Rides

MILLBURN, NJ — Like many other schools across the country, Millburn Public School District is facing a major bus driver shortage, leaving many students without transportation to and from school.

In a Board of Education meeting Monday, September 27, Superintendent Dr. Christine Burton announced that due to a lack of bus drivers in the district, students who live outside a certain distance will no longer be eligible for busing. This forces around 140 students to find other means to get to school.

Subscription busing will now be limited to students living over a mile and a half from Millburn High School and students living over one mile from Millburn Middle School. As a result, this eliminates one high school route, as well as two middle school routes. Families who had previously paid for the $775 annual service and are no longer eligible will be fully reimbursed. Elementary school students who take the bus will not be impacted by the new system.

Burton explained that there is a difference between mandated busing and subscription busing. Under NJ state law, all public elementary students, grades K-8, who live more than two miles from school and all public secondary students, grades 9-12, who live more than two-and-a-half miles from the high school are entitled to transportation.

The district additionally offers subscription busing to any students who are not mandated to receive busing but would like to purchase it. But because the district cannot meet the mandated requirements, they need to adjust the eligibility for subscription busing.

“We ask for your patience as we need to make adjustments … but right now mandated routes need to be covered and we need to make those adjustments for subscription busing,” Burton said.

The reason there is a shortage of drivers is partly because of how difficult it is to obtain a school bus driver’s license currently. Under the state’s strict requirements, bus drivers must have a commercial driver’s license and a Student School Bus and Passenger Endorsement — both of which require a lengthy process to obtain.

Additionally, bus driving is a part-time job that requires drivers to seek additional employment. It is a very transient position, which may be unattractive to some.

There are also new COVID-19 safety protocols for these drivers. Under Governor Murphy’s executive orders, drivers must wear a mask while driving and they either need to be vaccinated or receive testing weekly. Burton said Millburn lost some drivers due to refusal to get vaccinated or receive testing. With no substitute drivers, these routes are unable to be covered.

Millburn has seven full-time drivers employed by the school district who mainly cover the special education population. However, these drivers do not cover contracted routes and the majority of Millburn’s routes are covered by contractors. The district contracts drivers through transportation cooperatives that support numerous school districts.

Even with the new plan that limits transportation, school officials warned that students in grades 5-12 may experience longer wait times.

“In addition to this step of limiting subscription busing which allowed us to combine some routes, we are continuing to look at efficiencies within other routes that may create more flexibility,” school spokeswoman Nancy Dries said at the meeting.

The new system will go into effect October 4.

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