Gillian Follett is reporting for DailyOrange [dot] com a report this month from the New York State School Boards Association revealed a shortage of school bus drivers in districts statewide has negatively affected students. The association found that approximately 75 percent of school transportation directors in New York said they had an insufficient number of bus drivers at some point in the 2017-18 school year. Of those directors, 80 percent reported the driver shortage was a major concern. The report also found that roughly 80 percent of transportation directors said the length of shifts and rate of pay many bus drivers receive are factors in the shortage. The average annual wage for bus drivers in 2017 was just more than $43,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As more jobs have become available in recent years, people have stopped driving school buses and instead search for jobs that have higher pay or better align with their education, said Kathy Furneaux, executive director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute. The report included several recommendations to help increase the number of bus drivers across the state. Read the full story at The Daily Orange.