GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Guilford County Schools has been in session for three weeks, and students are still waiting to be assigned to a bus route.
One local mother is losing sleep to make sure her daughter gets to and from school every day while she waits for word from the district.
There is a nationwide bus driver shortage, and GCS is not immune. They’re short 66 bus drivers right now, and parents are frustrated.
Jessica Allen works 12-hour overnight shifts.
“I get off work at 7 a.m., get home and then take her to school,” she said.
She’s been doing that for three weeks. She has to rush home, go to sleep and wake up in time to get into the car line and pick up her daughter.
“She has not been able to get on a bus. They keep saying their system is going to be updated,” Allen said.
GCS says the demand to ride the bus is high. Just last week, 2,900 more students were given placements. Allen’s daughter wasn’t one of them.
“For three weeks, I’ve had to go and pick her up after school because the transportation department is failing to do its job,” Allen said.
She keeps calling.
“Call back tomorrow. Get an update. Call back tomorrow. Get an update,” she said. “’Well, we have a backlog of calls.’”
So she’ll keep calling and hoping her daughter is assigned a bus to get home soon.
The school district wasn’t able to provide a number of students awaiting a route as of Tuesday, but a spokesperson did say they are doing everything they can to get through the backlog.
