Schools throughout Mississippi seek bus drivers

Published 1:03 pm Wednesday, March 4, 2026

As state officials wrestle over teacher pay and debate the merits of public versus private schools, school districts throughout the state are struggling to fill another critical position in education: bus drivers.

In a February posting on social media, the  Lauderdale County School District Safety and Transportation Department put out a call for people to apply.

“Lauderdale County School District is desperate for bus drivers, and the Northeast routes are hit the hardest right now,” the department said. “This isn’t just a job posting—this is about making sure kids get to school safely and on time.”

Russell Keene, Transportation and Safety Director for Lauderdale County schools, said the search for drivers is a widespread issue, and other districts are struggling to fill the driver slots as well.

“It’s really an epidemic across the country, at least across the districts that we talk to in Mississippi about the epidemic of looking for bus drivers,” he said. “It’s not a bad job, especially if you’ve got the time in the morning and the evening. It can work out pretty well for some people.”

Jonathan Tillman, pupil transportation administrator for the Mississippi Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Orderly Schools, said Lauderdale County is far from alone in its search for more drivers. One of the driving reasons behind the shortage is low pay, he said.

Bus drivers in Lauderdale County are usually paid somewhere between $55-$60 per day, Keene said, depending on the length of the route they drive and how many students they are picking up. Routes are around an hour and a half, he said.

“So like that $60, you’re being paid for three hours of driving,” he said.

Becoming a bus driver does require a Commercial Driver’s License, or CDL. From there, drivers will need to pass several tests to get the needed endorsements to drive a school bus.

“There’s a general knowledge test. There’s an air brakes test because all of our buses are air brakes, there’s a school bus and there’s a passenger,” he said. “So once you go through all those tests, you get all your endorsements on your license, you’re ready for the ELDT class.”

The ELDT class, or Entry-level Driver Training, is a course the U.S. Department of Transportation requires new CDL applicants complete for Class A and B CDLs and passenger or school bus endorsements. Keene said the district has an online course drivers can go through to meet the requirement before learning to drive a school bus.

“Bus school is when you actually learn how to drive a bus,” he said. “We get you behind a wheel. You learn how to do some of the maneuvers on a school bus that you will do.”

While it may seem daunting to driver applicants, Keene said someone committed to becoming a school bus driver can get from the couch to behind the wheel of a school bus in approximately a month.

“It works out good, especially for somebody that may be retired or may not have a lot going on necessarily in the daytime because, you know, 3 p.m., that’s when you’re going to start that evening route,” he said. “In the morning, it’s usually going to be 6:30 a.m. or before when you start that route, and you’re hopefully going to get to the school right at 7:30 a.m.”

Being a bus driver isn’t all about scheduling and pay. It’s also an opportunity to see parts of Lauderdale County others don’t get to see and be a part of helping prepare the next generation of leaders.

Anyone interested in learning more about becoming a bus driver can contact Keene at 601-485-1750 or email rkeene@lauderdale.k12.ms.us