Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are facing a problem of how to get kids to school due to a bus driver shortage, complicating the picture for both educators and parents who are reliant on public busing.

CPS has come up with a solution: pay parents to drive their own kids to school.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the district originally planned to have some students picked up 15 to 30 minutes earlier. The move failed after a wave of resignations from bus drivers. About 2,100 students of a total 340,658 students were impacted by the lack of drivers. Within this group, CPS officials told the Tribune that 990 special education children will lack transportation for their first day of school because of the driver shortage.

One way that CPS is considering to help students return to school after a difficult first day is direct payments to parents. In a statement, CPS said that the families of the 2,100 students would be provided with a $1,000 upfront payment for two weeks and subsequent payments of $500 afterwards. The district acknowledged that the program will not completely remedy the situation, but it pledged to continue seeking out a more sustainable solution.

CPS is the third-largest public school district in the nation and has a student population that is a majority Black and Hispanic. Last spring, only a quarter of CPS students returned for in-person learning as a majority continued to remain at home for remote learning, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

On Friday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed concerns about delays in young students returning to school. When asked what CPS would do if its thousands of students could not attend classes, she said she did not "want to think about the worst-case scenario."

“We’re in an unusual time, but we’ve got to reach our young people and their parents and guardians and make sure that they understand school is starting — to address and allay any concerns that they have but get them back in school,” Lightfoot said at a news conference.

The struggle to return students to school has paralleled other difficulties Chicago has faced in combating COVID-19.

Since the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine on Aug. 23, Lightfoot has pushed ahead with a vaccine mandate for city employees with the goal of vaccinating the entire workforce by October. The path forward has not been easy because of resistance from public employees and their unions. Lightfoot has stuck to her insistence on the necessity of increasing vaccinations.

"Let's be clear. We always want to engage with our unions on any issue that's going to affect their members, and certainly their workplace, but it's a condition of employment," Lightfoot said. "We have to make sure that our folks are vaccinated.

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