District Offers Financial Incentives to New, Veteran School Bus Drivers

FORT WORTH, Texas — A school district here is offering more money to recruit school bus drivers and to award driver attendance.

The Fort Worth Independent School District will begin, effective immediately, to pay a $500 sign-on bonus to new bus driver hires who commit to one year of employment, according to the school district’s website. New drivers will receive the bonus at the end of the 2018-19 school year.

Also, new and veteran drivers are eligible for additional pay when they have perfect or “almost perfect” attendance. Starting this fall, drivers who complete 100% of their scheduled routes during the school year will receive an extra $12 per day. Drivers who complete 95% of their routes (defined as no more than five allowable absences per semester) will receive an additional $9 a day.

All fully credentialed bus drivers will be eligible for the attendance incentive. The pay will be based on the number of instructional days (those in which students are in class) that bus drivers complete all their scheduled routes. Instructional days for the 2018-19 school year total 177, according to the district’s website.

The attendance payouts, which are taxable, will be paid in January and in June.