OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma State Board of Education is pushing for stricter requirements to be met by people wanting to become school bus drivers.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters said it's all an effort to increase safety.
Still, families are speaking out, mentioning that Oklahoma is experiencing a school bus driver shortage and that more requirements may dissuade people from applying.
Serina Romo is the eldest sister of five. Three of her younger sisters attend school in Oklahoma City and she was at the capitol during the Board of Education meeting on Jan. 28.
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“Knowing that we have a shortage, knowing that we barely have anybody you know to come pick up our kids on time," she said "It's a good idea to do some background checks, I guess. But we're barely having any help. A lot of districts are struggling.”
Romo said her younger sister will now be taking the bus, but she's not thrilled at the idea of her having to squeeze into a bus with lots of other kids.
Romo said due to the shortage in drivers, she's heard it's very common for students to have to squeeze into buses.
2News Oklahoma's Isabel Flores spoke to State Superintendent Ryan Walters to get some more information on how the proposed requirements would impact the bus driver shortage.
He said he thinks restructuring the way districts pay their bus drivers is key.
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"Let's pay the bus drivers more," he said. "We're going to continue to push on that. We have some initiatives we're going to be rolling out this session to get more money to those folks that interact directly with our kids."
Walters said he thinks an increase in pay would make the job more attractive to people and help keep "good" bus drivers.
He also said disciplining students who have had histories of causing trouble on the bus will help keep other students and bus drivers safe, which will in turn help convince people to apply.
"You're going to see good people that want to come back and drive buses, you'll see good people stay bus drivers, if we can help get discipline under control," he said. "They get to enjoy the time with the kids, they get to transport them safely. We can recruit those people, if we take those steps, and we're going to make sure that that happens across the
board."
The proposed requirements have to go through the legislature, which can decide to keep, change or reject the proposed guidelines for bus drivers.
The same has to happen with the State Governor.
If the requirements are approved, Walters said the new rules will go into effect next school year and current bus drivers will also have to abide by the new requirements in order to keep their positions.
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