Illinois Schools, Transportation Providers, and State Officials Work Together to Ease School Bus Driver Shortage
Why It Matters
Illinois families who depend on school bus service — particularly in rural communities, small towns, and urban neighborhoods — are benefiting from a collaborative effort to address a driver shortage that has strained school districts across the country. The push to reduce bureaucratic barriers while maintaining safety standards offers a model for other states still struggling with the problem.
The shortage has forced school administrators nationwide to pull staff away from core educational duties, diverting resources and attention from students in the classroom.
What Happened
Illinois school districts, transportation providers, and the Secretary of State’s office joined forces to tackle a school bus driver shortage that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. First Student, the largest school transportation provider in the country, initiated the partnership with Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to reduce administrative and legislative barriers to hiring.
Giannoulias moved to streamline training requirements, making them more relevant to the specific type of vehicle a driver operates. He also petitioned the federal government to waive a requirement that drivers pass an under-the-hood engine component identification exam — a test that industry officials said was outdated given that modern bus depots employ dedicated mechanics and technicians.
The secretary also expanded access to the commercial driver’s licensing process by adding Spanish-language exam options and allowing certain farm truck licensees to qualify for school bus operation. Throughout the effort, officials emphasized that safety standards remained the top priority.
On the employer side, schools and transportation providers offered flexible hours and sign-on bonuses to attract a broader pool of candidates. Chicago Public Schools raised driver wages, coordinated with vendors including First Student, adjusted transportation schedules, and advocated for changes to state certification requirements.
By the Numbers
80% of school administrators nationwide said bus driver shortages were a problem in their district, according to a 2025 survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and HopSkipDrive.
83% of survey respondents said staff in their districts had to step away from core duties to drive buses or manage car lines at least several times per year, with 54% doing so on a weekly basis.
90% of administrators reported a growing number of students qualifying for free school transportation, even as the workforce shrank and financial constraints tightened.
In Chicago, only about 5.5% of the district’s 315,000 students are eligible for bus service under state law — a threshold that requires students to live more than 1.5 miles from school or face documented safety hazards on their route.
First Student is currently hiring for approximately 40 part-time driver positions across Illinois, from Chicago and its suburbs to Carbondale in the southern part of the state.
Zoom Out
The school bus driver shortage is not unique to Illinois. The crisis began in 2020 when a significant segment of the existing driver workforce — largely elderly retirees — were among those most vulnerable to the pandemic, according to Leslie Norgren, vice president of consulting at First Student. That demographic loss has proven difficult to replace across the country.
The nationwide challenge has prompted a broader conversation about how government agencies at the state level can reduce regulatory burdens without compromising public safety — a balance that Illinois officials say they achieved through targeted, common-sense reforms. The Illinois approach, built on private-public coordination rather than top-down government mandates, reflects a preference for market-based and cooperative solutions over expanded government spending programs.
Illinois’s reliance on outsourced transportation companies like First Student — a longstanding model in the state — has also helped buffer local school districts from the worst effects of the shortage, since specialized providers are better positioned for recruiting and retention than institutions whose primary mission is educating students.
What’s Next
While First Student reports that the Illinois market has stabilized and a widespread shortage is no longer present statewide, challenges remain in specific districts. Chicago Public Schools continues to face labor pressure driven by a growing number of students with disabilities and those in temporary living situations — populations that require specialized transportation services.
Officials have indicated that ongoing coordination between transportation providers, school districts, and the Secretary of State’s office will continue. The federal waiver on the under-the-hood engine exam remains a key policy change to watch, as similar exemptions could be pursued in other states facing comparable workforce challenges.
For Illinois lawmakers tracking related infrastructure and regulatory issues, efforts to modernize state administrative requirements across multiple sectors remain active. Readers interested in how state officials are approaching oversight of emerging industries can follow coverage of water use transparency requirements for data centers and deep-dive legislative hearings on data center regulation currently underway in Springfield.