---
title: "Bus Driver, School"
description: "Drive a school bus to transport students. Ensure adherence to safety rules. May assist students in boarding or exiting."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-school"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Bus Driver, School

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-3051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-3051.00

Drive a school bus to transport students. Ensure adherence to safety rules. May assist students in boarding or exiting.

Also advertised as: Bus Drive Coordinator; Bus Driver; CDL Bus Driver (Commercial Driver's License Bus Driver); Public School Bus Driver; School Bus Driver; School Van Driver; Shuttle Bus Driver; SPED Bus Driver (Special Education Bus Driver).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.04/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $29,240 to $65,730, with the middle half between $38,650 and $58,430
- **Total US employment:** 402,930
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +0.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 61,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 402,930 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $29,240 |
| 25th | $38,650 |
| 50th (median) | $47,920 |
| 75th | $58,430 |
| 90th | $65,730 |
| Mean (average) | $48,430 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $65,170 | $61,622 | 9,330 |
| WA | $63,370 | $59,217 | 9,660 |
| CT | $61,520 | $59,377 | 7,970 |
| CA | $61,040 | $55,130 | 16,600 |
| NJ | $59,430 | $54,621 | 13,670 |
| HI | $59,090 | $53,742 | 630 |
| RI | $58,700 | $57,391 | 1,800 |
| NY | $56,640 | $52,483 | 38,320 |
| VT | $56,580 | $57,759 | 860 |
| MD | $56,450 | $53,783 | 9,020 |
| DC | $55,450 | $50,454 | 510 |
| AK | $54,200 | $52,951 | 790 |
| UT | $52,890 | $53,498 | 1,920 |
| CO | $52,620 | $51,062 | 3,840 |
| OR | $51,270 | $49,603 | 5,210 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-school/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bus-driver-school.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 387,300 in the 2024–2034 base year to 388,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +0.2%. Slower than average: 0.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 61,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 59.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 37.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 3.5% |

## What the work involves

- Comply with traffic regulations to operate vehicles in a safe and courteous manner.
- Check the condition of a vehicle's tires, brakes, windshield wipers, lights, oil, fuel, water, and safety equipment to ensure that everything is in working order.
- Report any bus malfunctions or needed repairs.
- Drive gasoline, diesel, or electrically powered multi-passenger vehicles to transport students between neighborhoods, schools, and school activities.
- Maintain order among students during trips to ensure safety.
- Report delays, accidents, or other traffic and transportation situations, using telephones or mobile two-way radios.
- Keep bus interiors clean for students.
- Regulate heating, lighting, and ventilation systems for student comfort.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Far Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Depth Perception — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.50 |
| C — Conventional | 4.70 |
| S — Social | 4.45 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.18 |
| I — Investigative | 1.61 |
| A — Artistic | 1.21 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 84.7 |
| ESTJ | 76.2 |
| ISTJ | 76.0 |
| ESFJ | 76.0 |
| ISFP | 54.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [School Bus Monitor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-bus-monitor) — median $35,100
- [Bus Driver, Transit and Intercity](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-transit-and-intercity) — median $59,050
- [Taxi Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/taxi-driver) — median $42,100
- [Shuttle Driver and Chauffeur](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shuttle-driver-and-chauffeur) — median $37,290
- [Subway and Streetcar Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/subway-and-streetcar-operator) — median $86,380
- [Railroad Conductor and Yardmaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-conductor-and-yardmaster) — median $78,000
- [Light Truck Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/light-truck-driver) — median $44,860
- [Crossing Guard and Flagger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crossing-guard-and-flagger) — median $38,100
- [Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dispatcher) — median $50,340
- [Ambulance Driver and Attendant, Except Emergency Medical Technicians](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant) — median $35,450

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bus-driver-school