The million-dollar question remains: What does the school experience look like after the coronavirus pandemic, and what will it mean for student transportation?

Many administrators across the nation have shared they are looking at a hybrid model of both online and in-person learning, where groups of students would be divided in half, with five days of in-person learning stretched across a two-week span.

Whether that will be all in-person learning, a full online learning module, or a hybrid model remains to be seen. However, online learning could help teachers catch up with the kids who have been traditionally left behind because they didn’t have access to that one-on-one environment.

Nicole Schlosser, the executive editor of School Bus Fleet magazine, said if the new normal becomes an online distance learning model for some of the students, at least partially, it could help alleviate or even be a solution to the ongoing school bus driver shortage. But many drivers are also in the at-risk category based on their ages or medical conditions, they might not want to continue being a school bus driver, which could inherently make the shortage situation worse. However, online learning could essentially help fill that gap, she noted.