New Milford Updates Parents On School Bus Driver Shortage

Back in September we told you about New Milford Public Schools sending out an urgent message to families regarding bus transportation issues they were having.

Now the School District has an update since their school bus provider, All Star Transportation, continues to experience a driver shortage. Since September even more drivers have either resigned or have taken a leave of absence, which has now created even less bus drivers to handle the morning and afternoon student commute, and has created even more hassles for parents and school administrators.

Get our free mobile app

The transportation provider has shared that they have tried to contact other bus depots and that there are no drivers available leaving all involved caught between a rock and a hard place.

In a statement issued Monday (March 7) New Milford School Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo sent this message to all New Milford Public School parents:

As a district, we continue to evaluate how we can help families. We will continue to work with All-Star to provide the later bus arrival in the morning as well as the later pickup time for those buses that do not run on time in the afternoon. We are also offering bus passes when possible to accommodate students' arrival closer to their normal drop-off time whenever possible. Please speak to your child’s school to see if this option is available if you are interested.

The school district also has planned to offer students other transportation alternatives like supervised early morning drop off to cover for busses that are not running on time each morning and so parents can drive their kids in early prior to them leaving for their jobs.

The early moning drop off times for New Milford High School and Middle School will start at 6:25 AM, while other schools will have staff supervision starting at 7:30 AM. DiCorpo reminded parents that these supervised drop off are for those students who's busses are not running on specific mornings, and not for the entire student body, and will be put into full effect starting on March 9.

You can contact your students school, or the office of the Superintendent if you need a list of all the bus routes that are affected by the driver shortage, and to see if your eligible for the early morning supervised drop off.