Bus Drivers Face Strict Standards in Bismarck - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

The school district has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to alcohol use for bus drivers.

But there are several steps taken to make sure your child is safe.

Each day around 3300 students get on buses in the Bismarck Public School District.

Most of the fifty or so drivers are hired by Harlow's Bus Service-. 12 are actual employees of the Bismarck Public School District.

All of the drivers are subject to the same standards.

"Everybody in the district has a background check but above and beyond that our drivers do have to pass a drug and alcohol test when they are hired and then they are on the random DOT so we would get a call that we would need driver X to do the test today and that's what we would do," says Darin Scherr, Director of Transportation and Grounds for Bismarck Public Schools."

The check goes beyond looking at drugs and alcohol and covers anyone who cold come in contact with your child.

"It's a background check that's given by BCI so they do random searches on everything and we even contractors that work on our projects we will check them against sex offender lists to make sure that anybody that is gonna interact with our kids we try to do the best job possible to make sure everybody is safe," says Scherr.

Scherr says if a candidate has as much as a speeding ticket on record--they won't be hired.

And he says that makes finding drivers in a tight job market even more difficult.

"We will have very limited applicants, two or three, and if we get a good one that's good but we struggle we compete with the oil patch and they're making high dollar and we just can't compete with that or offer that," says Scherr."

Scherr says the district is constantly in search of drivers, but only has one opening now, created by the resignation earlier this week.

He says Harlow's has added one driver this fall to help handle additional enrollment in the district this year.

Scherr also says there is yearly mandatory training, and a new program where he meets with drivers four to six times a school year to cover topics like CPR or food allergies.