Arizona·Transportation and Material Moving Occupations·SOC 53-3051

Best Bus Driver, School programs in Arizona, ranked by enrollment

Drive a school bus to transport students. Ensure adherence to safety rules.

6 schools in Arizona run programs that feed this job, graduating 587 people a year. The job pays a median of $46,050 in Arizona across about 5,020 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledBus DriverSchool Bus DriverPublic School Bus DriverSPED Bus Driver (Special Education Bus Driver)Bus MonitorCampus DriverStudent DriverSchool Van Driver
Graduates / yr
587
in Arizona
Median pay · Arizona
$46,050
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
5,020
people employed
Schools
6
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
46%
across those schools
Median net price
$22,442
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Arizona that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Arizona that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Arizona (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Arizona page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 49.0205In Arizona
587
100.0%
6$42,812$7,572

Top 6 schools in Arizona

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 1 of the 6 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1HDS Truck Driving Institute
Tucson, AZ Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
324Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor$36,57683%
2Cochise County Community College District
Sierra Vista, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
71Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor30%
3Pima Community College
Tucson, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
70Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor28%
4Miller - Motte College - Arizona Automotive Institute
Glendale, AZ Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
62Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor61%$22,442
5Yavapai College
Prescott, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
59Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor34%
6Eastern Arizona College
Thatcher, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
1Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor42%

All 6 schools in Arizona

Every school in Arizona with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Arizona that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
HDS Truck Driving InstituteTucsonPrivate for-profit3241
Cochise County Community College DistrictSierra VistaPublic711
Pima Community CollegeTucsonPublic701
Miller - Motte College - Arizona Automotive InstituteGlendalePrivate for-profit621
Yavapai CollegePrescottPublic591
Eastern Arizona CollegeThatcherPublic11

What bus drivers, school earn in Arizona

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Arizona
$46,050
Mean annual
$45,390
Jobs in state
5,020
What the range looks like
10th pct$37,370Median$46,05090th pct$52,870
Versus the national median
-3.9%

U.S. median $47,920. Arizona pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.60×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Arizona

Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ
$46,760median
3,020 jobs
Flagstaff, AZ
$46,460median
140 jobs
Tucson, AZ
$43,990median
810 jobs
Sierra Vista-Douglas, AZ
$40,660median
170 jobs
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
$40,710median
140 jobs
Yuma, AZ
$39,210median
100 jobs
Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ
$38,570median
170 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+0.2%
Little or no change
Openings per year
61,000
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
900
387,300 → 388,200
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus short-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Bus Drivers, School page.

How to become a Bus Driver, School

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

MonitoringActive ListeningCritical ThinkingSpeakingReading ComprehensionWriting

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Arizona

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Bus Drivers, School1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 49.0205Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor

Common questions

Answers for people weighing bus drivers, school programs in Arizona.

What degree do you need to become a Bus Driver, School?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor, which awarded 587 degrees in Arizona in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Bus Driver, School?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Ground Transportation. Together they graduate about 587 people a year in Arizona.

How much do bus drivers, school earn in Arizona?+

The median is $46,050 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 3.9% below the U.S. median of $47,920. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for bus drivers, school growing?+

BLS projects a +0.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 61,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Arizona?+

6 institutions in Arizona reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do bus drivers, school work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Bus Driver, School Bus Driver, Public School Bus Driver, SPED Bus Driver (Special Education Bus Driver) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 53-3051.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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