BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. (WOKI / WVLT) — Some Blount County parents say frequent school bus cancellations and delays are creating major challenges for working families, forcing parents to leave work unexpectedly or make last-minute arrangements to get children home from school.
Kimberly Garner, whose daughter attends Eagleton Elementary School, said her child’s bus route was canceled seven consecutive school days last month.
According to Garner, the repeated cancellations forced her husband to leave work in Knoxville approximately two hours early each day so he could join the school pickup line.
“I mean, he was pretty livid, because we wouldn’t find out that the bus wasn’t running until the day of,” Garner said.
Garner said transportation disruptions became a nearly daily occurrence.
“Tuesday, yeah, I got one yesterday, Tuesday, Monday. So, it’s every day,” she said.
The family faces additional challenges because they have only one vehicle. Garner works from home while her husband commutes to Knoxville, making transportation changes especially difficult to manage on short notice.
Blount County Schools declined to comment when contacted about the ongoing transportation issues.
Officials with Rocky Top Tours, a private company that operates some district bus routes, said the cancellations stem from a shortage of qualified drivers.
John Clabough of Rocky Top Tours said staffing shortages have reached levels he has never experienced during more than three decades in the school transportation industry.
“I’ve been doing school buses for this 30-some years. This is the worst time we’ve ever had,” Clabough said. “Last year we had a full staff about the whole school year. And I don’t know what’s causing it.”
According to Clabough, when a driver calls in sick and no substitute is available, some routes simply cannot run.
“We call the school, the transportation director for that school group and say, ‘Hey, the 23 is not going to run today. We don’t have a driver,'” he said.
Garner said the district suggested enrolling her daughter in an after-school program to help address transportation uncertainties. However, she believes families should not have to absorb additional childcare costs because of bus staffing shortages.
“The reason that I work from home is so that I don’t have to pay for additional child care,” Garner said. “I don’t want to have to pay for her to go into the after-school program because it’s their fault the bus is down and they don’t have a backup plan.”
Clabough said there is no immediate solution beyond recruiting and hiring additional drivers.
“You can’t do what you can’t do if you don’t have anybody sitting in that driver’s seat,” he said.
While Garner said her daughter’s route has resumed service, she continues to receive notifications about delays and cancellations affecting other routes throughout the county.
The situation highlights a transportation challenge facing many school districts nationwide as they struggle to recruit and retain qualified bus drivers while maintaining reliable service for students and families.
