COLUMBIA, S.C. — Several weeks into the new school year, some districts are still facing staffing issues from the classroom to school buses.
Some families in Richland School District Two reached out to to talk about what they say is the lack of available seating on school buses and claims of students sitting on bus floors.
RELATED: Brawl on South Carolina school bus leads to parent hopping on, driver diverting to sheriff's office
Richland Two parents are calling it a safety concern.
Parents claim that some students on the school bus have to sit on the bus floors instead of seats for rides to and sometimes from school.
Will Anderson is Richland Two's Chief of Operations.
“Could someone not have been in a seat? It’s possible. Without reviewing the camera footage. But again you’ve got upwards 75 to 80 kids on a bus. Could they have started with three to a seat before the bus driver pulled off? Yes. And is it possible a child got of the seat during the drive, yes possible,” he said.
Anderson says there are a few issues, and he cites two specific reasons for them. The first is lack of student registration for bus routes.
“For example we may have set a route up on the first day of school to have 50 kids and they go an do their stops there’s 75 kids,” Anderson said.
The Chief of Operations said even if children show up to the bus stop without registration, no child get left behind. He said a solution to this issue is changing or adding routes.
“We’ve gotten more busses, moved routes around or gotten different things squared away so we shouldn’t have this issue," Anderson said.
The other issue that Anderson cites is the shortage of school bus drivers. He says there aren't enough to send multiple buses to one stop. So one bus might have to make multiple trips.
“The bus driver shortage impacts students getting to school on time. If we have 100 kids in a neighborhood, what’s going to have to happen is that driver is gonna have to pick up 50 drop them off and go get the other 50,” he said.
Anderson added the district abides by capacity laws on buses, which are based on student age, student size, and bus size.
He said these issues are being addressed and should be resolved.