Coventry Schools Face Bus Driver Shortage: 3 Routes Unstaffed

COVENTRY, RI — Like so many other school districts around the country, Coventry schools are struggling to find enough bus drivers for the 2021-22 school year.

This district is "experiencing extremely difficult times and due to COVID, we are short a number of bus drivers," school officials said in a statement.

As of Tuesday, three bus routes with both middle and high school students did not have bus drivers. While all students will get picked up, the district said, "we cannot guarantee that [buses] will be at the stops at the expected times in the morning or [that students will be] dropped off at their regular time in the afternoon."

To help address the transportation issues, the district asked parents and guardians to drive their students to school, if they can. Cranston schools took a similar approach to address a bus driver shortage in the district.