Kids Left Out In Cold After Some School Bus Drivers Don't Make It To Work

CEDAR HILL, Texas (CBS11) -  Cedar Hill ISD will return to regular school day schedule Thursday morning, one day after implementing a district-wide delay for students, after bus service for students faced a frigid delay on Tuesday.

"Teaching and learning can't happen if children aren't in the classroom," CHISD spokesman Jamie Brown said Wednesday.

Tuesday, five of the the school districts 51 bus routes did not have drivers for morning pick-up.

Temperatures on that morning were below freezing, and several students waited for more than an hour for buses to arrive.

Dallas County Schools, the school bus transportation entity slated for dismantling, is contracted to provide bus service for Cedar Hill ISD.

An official with the agency said the same weather conditions that hampered drivers throughout Southern Dallas County, along with Ellis and Navarro Counties, also impacted the DCS workforce.

"There were several drivers who couldn't get to work because of the weather," DCS executive Dale Kaiser said.

Kaiser said 90 bus drivers who transport students for DeSoto, Lancaster, Dallas and Cedar Hill school districts were absent Tuesday, due to weather conditions.

The delay pickups for Cedar Hill ISD students was also complicated when back up drivers, known as stand-ins, were assigned to replace other drivers. "I have to commend drivers who came (Tuesday). They went house to house picking up students. They were late, yes, but they tried to get as many students as they could in a quick amount of time," Kaiser said.

CHISD placed a two-hour delay on the start of the school day Wednesday to ensure students would not have to wait in frigid conditions before sunrise. Three scheduled DCS drivers did not report to work, but the bus agency said all routes were effectively covered, and students were transported to school on time.