Iowa school districts get creative to fill bus driver openings

Date:2025-08-23 01:57:29 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

GRIMES, Iowa — Since the pandemic, a school bus driver shortage has been prevalent across Iowa, and now school districts are employing creative strategies to recruit and fill these positions, according to the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.

This is especially the case for the Dallas Center-Grimes School District. The district’s bus barn is located along Highway 44 in Grimes. District officials placed a school bus along the side of the highway with a sign on the front that reads, “Bus Drivers Wanted.” The bottom of the sign reads, “No experience necessary. We will train.”

Highway 44 is a busy highway that vehicles traverse throughout the day. As a result, the district’s transportation director, Jeff Wolfe, said that the sign has proven to be their greatest marketing strategy.

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“This is the first year we’ve been fully staffed to start day one,” said Wolfe.

DC-G uses 30 school buses to transport 1,795 students to school daily. This year, they have 43 bus drivers employed with the district ahead of the first day of school.

Despite being fully staffed, the district is still looking for more drivers.

Wolfe said the job is difficult to fill because the hours are unlike other jobs. Bus drivers need to be available in the morning to bring kids to school, and again in the afternoon to bring them home from school. There are also cases where bus drivers are needed to transport students to after-school activities or school trips.

This is why he is always looking for substitute drivers who can fill in.

The IPTA is an organization that provides resources to schools for transportation services. The executive director, David Johnson, told WHO 13 News that while districts are receiving applications again, the need is still high.

“When you ask a group of transportation directors who is fully staffed, no one raises their hand,” he said.

Johnson said some districts are combining bus routes to ease the need, while others have school administrators or principals also serving as drivers.

People interested in being a bus driver can reach out to any district in the state.