Well the school year is well underway.

But some districts are still struggling to get their kids to and from school.

The bus driver shortage that's plagued the state for the last few years isn't getting any better.

Even with increased pay and benefits, districts still aren't able to fill those gaps.

Transportation Reporter For the record, Colleen Wilson has been looking into the issue and she joins me now.

Colleen, thanks for being with us tonight.

Just help us understand what's happening when it comes to this bus driver shortage in New Jersey.

Districts are competing within the same shrunken pool.

Where are they?

That's a good question.

And I it's not something we really have the answer to.

The private company owner that I spoke to about this had the same question.

And I think part of the answer is that competition for drivers is at an all time high.

Between Amazon, FedEx, UPS, any kind of ride share services.

Obviously, New Jersey Transit is and many other transit operators are looking and clamoring for people with commercial driver's licenses.

So school busses fall into that category as well.

As far as, you know, having a dearth of drivers to fill their needs.

And one of the things that makes bus driver licenses different is that they are more stringent.

Just talk through what's required to become a school bus driver here in the state.

Yeah, you have to have additional endorsements, which is additional, you know, background checks and information, just a more thorough process, basically.

Not to mention additional training.

You have to be able to identify and know have a vast knowledge of the way a bus works and its engine parts and things like that.

You know, the process can take 3 to 6 months.

It's a long time for what can oftentimes be just a part time job.

So, you know, that probably help explains why the pool of drivers is so small and especially hitting the school bus industry so hard.

Your reporting really highlighted something that's been concerning here in the state, which is that there are companies that we know are known to have put out drivers who are not properly credentialed or who perhaps have criminal backgrounds.

And school districts right now are hiring some of these companies.

Just explain what's happened here and the state's role in really creating oversight over these companies.

Yeah, this is a problem that's been going on for a while.

It predates the pandemic, which exacerbated the the shortage of drivers.

But, you know, the thing is, the private school companies, I think it's really there's two types.

You have a lot of family owned, you know, multi-generational companies who try to do the right thing, who don't cut corners.

But then you have a lot of bad actors who come in who see, you know, state money, taxpayer money, big contracts available, and they go for those they can put in a little bit and then hire suspect people.

And we've seen this over and over again.

The USA Today network in New Jersey, I was a part of that team that really highlighted that several years ago.

in 2020.

The state did the state did pass three laws, in just the short amount of time we have left.

The state passed laws to create better oversight, and yet we don't see that happening yet.

What's what's slipping through the cracks here?

Yeah, it's a great question.

The State Department of Education by law was supposed to have created the Office of School Bus Safety.

That was one of the new laws that was passed.

And they just haven't done it.

But it's it's gone unexplained.

Why an office so critical to school safety, to children's safety, hasn't been made a bigger priority and why there isn't a bigger hiring push to get those jobs filled.

It always becomes a major priority when something goes wrong.

Colleen Wilson, transportation reporter for Northjersey.com, thank you so much.

Great reporting.

Thanks for having me.