For the third time in a single week, Jaime Hodge says her eighth-grade son had no regular bus to bring him home from West Buffalo Charter. On Monday and Tuesday, Hodge and her husband took turns driving over to pick him up themselves. By Thursday, the school was telling families that a driver still wasn't available for his route.
According to WKBW, the school sent a prerecorded call on Thursday offering a bus ride an hour before dismissal, after a message said a driver was unavailable again for bus 458. Rather than nothing, families were told the school would send a bus at 2 p.m. as it tried to find a workaround. Buffalo Public Schools provides transportation to West Buffalo Charter through a contract with First Student, the outlet reported.
Hodge told the station her son, Zander, is at an important point in his academic career as he gets ready for high school and, eventually, college — he hopes to study engineering. She said missing classes, especially math, could hurt his future education, and that the disruptions aren't new. “I've been dealing with spotty transportation for my son since Kindergarten,” she said, per the station's report.
Parents Push Back on the Contractor
Hodge didn't mince words about who she holds responsible. She said First Student isn't fulfilling the service the district pays it to provide, telling the outlet, “they aren't fulfilling what we're paying them for.” She also said Buffalo Public Schools should review its contract and hold the company to its terms, the same report noted.
Buffalo Public Schools said it would reach out to First Student directly in response to the concerns, and acknowledged what it described as a national bus-driver shortage, adding that the company was actively recruiting drivers. The district also urged parents to track their children's buses through the First Student app and to call (716) 816-4895 for assistance, per the same account.
A Pattern Beyond One Family
Hodge's experience isn't isolated. A separate WIVB report described a South Buffalo family whose third-grader at Lorraine Elementary faced ongoing issues with his bus arriving late or not at all, with the child sometimes waiting up to two hours after dismissal when a driver wasn't available. That report framed the trouble as part of a nationwide school bus driver shortage that has strained transportation systems in districts across the country.
In that case, the family said the company restructured the child's route after the station contacted the district and First Student, and the boy had since been picked up on time. First Student has said its staffing in Buffalo has been improving, though the same report noted the company acknowledged that illness-related absences can still leave routes uncovered.
Recruiting Pitch and a Costly Contract
First Student has said it has job openings at every one of its Western New York locations, stretching from Niagara Falls to Fredonia, and has offered free commercial driver's license training to attract new hires. The scale of what's at stake for the district is significant: Buffalo's school board voted 6-3 to approve a new five-year contract with First Student that could cost up to $460 million, according to The Buffalo News. That agreement covers transportation for roughly 27,000 students from prekindergarten through eighth grade to more than 50 district, charter and private schools.
The driver shortage has frustrated Buffalo parents for years. Back in December 2022, a report from WUTV described parents opposing a proposed three-bell schedule meant to address the shortage, arguing that midyear changes would disrupt families. That same report noted that under the district's prior contract with First Student, covering 2020 through 2025, the district could deduct part of its payment if the company failed to provide the required number of buses or if a bus arrived more than five minutes late.
For Hodge, the broader numbers matter less than whether her son gets a ride home. Whether this week's bus troubles get resolved for her family remains to be seen, but she's made clear she wants the district to treat the contract's terms as more than paperwork.
