RALEIGH – As students, parents, teachers, and administrators wrap up the end of one school year, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles is already focused on making sure school districts have the bus drivers they’ll need when the next school year starts again in the fall.
Speaking today at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) School Bus Driver Roadeo, Commissioner Wayne Goodwin highlighted NCDMV’s role in the training of school bus drivers. “The Division of Motor Vehicles has a long and rich history with school bus drivers in our state,” said Commissioner Goodwin. “Our employees have been training and certifying school bus drivers in North Carolina for nearly 40 years.”
Much has changed over the years, and NCDMV has changed the way it trains school bus drivers, increasingly incorporating the use of technology. During the pandemic, the division pivoted to provide a virtual training option when gathering in groups was restricted. NCDMV continues to offer the virtual class in addition to the traditional classroom option.
“Offering a virtual training option is just another example of how we’re working to modernize operations at the DMV to meet our customer needs,” said Commissioner Goodwin. “In this case, our customers are the students, parents and schools that rely on adequately trained and certified bus drivers to get our children to and from school safely.”
Additionally, NCDMV is working toward receiving the training necessary to utilize the modernized testing platform approved by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).
Since 2020, NCDMV has trained 19,201 bus drivers. In that same period, 7,091 bus drivers were trained virtually, with an 81.7% success rate.
“While NCDMV is not responsible for recruiting bus drivers, we continue to do our part training bus drivers,” said Commissioner Goodwin. “Over the last four years, we have trained and certified 15,494 new school bus drivers and renewed 36,542 school bus drivers. More than enough to fill every bus route in the state.”
For the 2023-24 traditional school year, which officially ends today, NCDMV trained and certified 3,754 school bus drivers, and recertified another 6,654 drivers to drive more than 12,000 school buses.
There are currently 29,225 certified school bus drivers in the state. According to DPI, there are approximately 11,400 public school bus routes in the state.
