Student-athletes in the Kyrene School District in Tempe, Arizona, will need to find alternative ways to get to games during the 2025–26 school year, as the district has announced it will no longer provide buses for athletic events.
Officials confirmed to ABC15 that the district is unable to support athletic transportation due to a persistent shortage of bus drivers. Currently, 15 driver positions remain unfilled, leaving just enough staff to cover essential afternoon routes for regular school transportation.
“Our highest priority is always the safe and on-time transportation of students to and from school,” a Kyrene School District spokesperson said. “Due to staffing shortages, all drivers will be driving afternoon routes, and there will not be enough staff to provide athletic transportation. Kyrene has worked very hard to minimize the impact of the nationwide bus driver shortage, but our district is no exception.”
The district noted that if staffing levels improve, transportation for athletic events could return.
The decline in school bus drivers is a national issue. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the number of drivers dropped from around 290,000 in 2009 to roughly 192,400 by September 2023. This comes as public school enrollment increased by 1.4 million students during the same period.
In an effort to address the shortage, the Kyrene district is considering a proposal that would offer quarterly attendance-based incentives for bus drivers. Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona co-sponsored legislation in April aimed at extending an exemption for new school bus drivers from certain Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) testing requirements. According to Kelly, Arizona has lost over half its school bus drivers since 2020, when there were about 8,400 drivers statewide.
The Kyrene School District includes 26 schools and serves over 14,000 students, according to U.S. News & World Report.
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