Thousands of Wake students without school bus drivers Friday because of COVID
UPDATE: Wake County is warning the disruptions may continue into next week.
Thousands of Wake County students had to provide their own transportation Friday as a result of more than 150 bus drivers being out primarily because of COVID-19.
Wake notified families at 65 schools around 6:30 am Friday that some bus routes would not be running. Families at the affected schools were asked to check the status of their child’s bus at www.wcpss.net/busupdate.
“If the status of your child’s bus route is ‘No Driver Available/Route Uncovered,’ you will need to make alternate transportation arrangements,” Wake said in the email. “We regret any inconvenience this may cause.”
Wake had more than 150 bus drivers absent each of the past two days, according to Matt Dees, a school district spokesman. He said more than 100 routes had to be canceled as a result.
Dees said the absences are primarily being driven by the impacts of COVID. They’re compounding the problems created by the nationwide bus driver shortage.
This week’s problems weren’t isolated to yellow school buses. Some Wake special-education students also didn’t district transportation Friday.
Bus driver absences are also up in the Johnston County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems.
But both districts said they were still able to cover all of their routes Friday. Some routes may have had delays though.
COVID cases at record levels
The alert comes as the state is seeing record numbers of new COVID-19 cases.
Wake County school board member Jim Martin warned this week that the district should expect staff absences to rise amid the omicron variant.
State health officials recently reduced quarantine times for students and school employees who are exposed to COVID-19 or who test positive for the virus.
In the fall, dozens of Wake bus drivers staged a three-day sickout to protest low pay and working conditions. A third of Wake’s buses weren’t running, leading to long carpool lines at schools as families arranged their own transportation.
The protest led the school board to take steps such as approving raises and $5,000 in employee bonuses.
In this week’s case, there’s no indication that the absences are part of any protest.
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Thousands of Wake students without school bus drivers Friday because of COVID."
