{"id":153451,"date":"2026-03-31T17:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153451\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:13:11","slug":"funds-awarded-for-new-school-bus-driver-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/153451\/","title":{"rendered":"Funds Awarded for New School Bus Driver Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania officials are investing nearly a quarter million dollars to train new school bus drivers as part of a new program aimed at improving student transportation safety across the state.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said in a statement<\/a> last month the funding will help seven school districts and transportation providers cover costs tied to training nearly 90 new drivers, including commercial driver\u2019s license training, trainee wages, testing fees and permit costs.<\/p>\n

Officials said the funding is part of Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s newly established School Bus Safety Program, designed to expand the number of qualified drivers and strengthen safety measures for students traveling to and from school. The national school bus driver shortage remains one of the greatest challenges faced by school transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring enough drivers to safely get our students to school is another way we\u2019re focusing on our children\u2019s futures,\u201d said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll in a statement.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He added that the funding will help schools and transportation providers make student transportation more reliable.<\/p>\n

The funds awarded will support driver training programs across multiple counties. Recipients include the Chartiers Valley School District in Allegheny County, which received $17,256 to train 12 new drivers, and Fullington Auto Bus Company serving Centre and Clearfield counties, which received $42,500 to train 25 drivers.<\/p>\n

Other recipients include contractor Krapf School Bus \u2013 GKJ Inc. serving Chester, Dauphin and York counties, which received $98,160 to train 32 drivers; Boyo Transportation Services in Dauphin County, which received $31,250 to train 10 drivers; the North East School District in Erie County, which received $8,160 to train eight drivers; the Laurel School District in Lawrence County, which received $1,000 for driver certification costs; and DMJ Transportation in Westmoreland County, which received $50,000 to train additional drivers.<\/p>\n

Program award funds comes from fines collected through Pennsylvania\u2019s automated school bus enforcement system. State law allows school buses to use camera systems to capture motorists who illegally pass buses with flashing red lights and extended stop arms.<\/p>\n

Officials said $25 of each $300 fine issued through the enforcement system goes toward the School Bus Safety Grant Program. STN contacted the districts awarded but had not heard back at this writing.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Ohio Announces School Bus Safety Grant Recipients for Technology Enhancements<\/a>
Related:\u00a0Iowa Launches Inaugural School Bus Safety Week Poster Contest<\/a>
Related:\u00a0The Importance of Streamlined Communication in School Bus Transportation for Safety and Efficiency<\/a>
Related:\u00a0(STN Podcast E296) Technology Has Blossomed: School Bus Mirrors & Student Safety<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania officials are investing nearly a quarter million dollars to train new school bus drivers as part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1245,12913,28,30,29,7363,10089,2155],"class_list":{"0":"post-153451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-driver","9":"tag-grants","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-safety","14":"tag-school-district","15":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}