Skip to content
TryHired.
Role hub · Bus Drivers, School

School Bus Driver: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of school bus drivers earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$47,920
Hourly
$23.04
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

School Bus Drivers drive a school bus to transport students. The median pay is $47,920 a year ($23.04 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent (59% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$47,920
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
402,930
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 1-2 of 5
very little to some preparation
Most common education
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
59% of workers

Data Government data groups this job as Bus Drivers, School (O*NET-SOC 53-3051.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Key facts

School Bus Drivers at a glance

  • Workers in the BLS occupation “Bus Drivers, School” in the United States earned a median annual wage of $47,920 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for workers in the BLS occupation “Bus Drivers, School” in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of workers in the BLS occupation “Bus Drivers, School” in the United States to grow 0.7% from 2025 to 2035, with about 56,500 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimates that less than 0.5% of bus drivers, school in the United States had the ability to telework in 2025, a preliminary estimate of whether the job allows it, not a count of remote jobs.

    Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 preliminary

Explore the role

Every page for School Bus Drivers

SalarySchool Bus Driver salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →How to becomeSchool Bus Driver how to become

Education, training and the skills to build first.

Open →ResumeSchool Bus Driver resume

Keywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.

Open →Interview questionsSchool Bus Driver interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What school bus drivers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Comply with traffic regulations to operate vehicles in a safe and courteous manner.
  2. Follow safety rules as students board and exit buses or cross streets near bus stops.
  3. 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.
  4. Report any bus malfunctions or needed repairs.
  5. Pick up and drop off students at regularly scheduled neighborhood locations, following strict time schedules.
  6. Escort small children across roads and highways.
  7. Drive gasoline, diesel, or electrically powered multi-passenger vehicles to transport students between neighborhoods, schools, and school activities.
  8. Maintain order among students during trips to ensure safety.
Job requirements

What the job requires

Data BLS figures for bus drivers, school (SOC 53-3051), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey.

Telework available
less than 0.5%
of workers had the ability to telework
Workday sitting
86.9%
mean share of the day required to sit
Most common strength level
Sedentary
85.2% of workers
Can pause work
less than 0.5%
of workers could take short, unscheduled breaks
Self-paced workload
less than 0.5%
of workers set their own workload
Employer-changed schedules
66.8%
of workers had schedules changed by the employer week to week

On TryHired lists: Desk jobs.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.

Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all school bus driver jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Educational services; state, local, and private51.3% of all jobs in this occupation · -0.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $45,120
  2. Transit and ground passenger transportation35.7% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $52,930
  3. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals11.1% of all jobs in this occupation · -0.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $49,540
  4. Social assistance1.3% of all jobs in this occupation · -0.9% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $41,750
  5. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations0.3% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.9% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $44,720
  6. Management of companies and enterprises0.0% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $39,330

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Active ListeningcoreCritical ThinkingcoreMonitoringcoreSocial PerceptivenessOperations MonitoringSpeakingCoordinationService OrientationReading Comprehension

Knowledge areas: Transportation, Public Safety and Security, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Mechanical, Law and Government.

Tools and technology

Software school bus drivers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • AOL MapQuestMap creation software
  • Microsoft WindowsOperating system softwareHot technology
  • Web browser softwareInternet browser software

Also called: Bus Drive Coordinator, Bus Driver Route Coordinator, CDL Bus Driver (Commercial Driver's License Bus Driver), Public School Bus Driver, School Van Driver.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.