Orange County parents upset over late school buses

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County parents said there are not enough school bus drivers to get every child to school on time.

Eyewitness News learned the district has about 971 drivers and officials are looking to hire more.

Andrea Fort said her daughter's school bus is late several times a week, so she has to drive her child to school.

Fort received a call from the Orange County School District informing her that her daughter’s bus was running late.

"Good morning. This is Orange County Public Schools Transportation Services," the message said.

Fort said the message stated that her daughter’s bus was “running up to approximately 30 minutes late."

"It definitely was longer than 30 minutes," said Fort.

The bus was supposed to arrive at 8:35 a.m. By 9:20 a.m., Fort decided to drive her daughter to school.

Classes start at Lee Middle School at 9:30 a.m.

“Sometimes, I'm at work and there's nothing I can do to even get here. So I'm panicking," she said.

“I've been told repeatedly, there's nothing that they can do. They're understaffed. They don't have any drivers. They give me the whole runaround of what to do," said Fort.

Officials report needing about 35 drivers. The shortage means some drivers have to double up on routes.

"It's December. School started in August and they still haven't resolved the issue," said Fort.

Fort said the tardiness is stressful, but more importantly, it impacts her child's education.

"Sometimes, she misses her whole first period class," said Fort.

Fort said the bus is also late dropping off her daughter, sometimes after night fall. The bus is supposed to drop off the students at 4:30 p.m.

Orange County Public Schools’ job fair is scheduled for Jan. 10 and 12.

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