West Virginia·Transportation and Material Moving Occupations·SOC 53-3051

Best Bus Driver, School programs in West Virginia, ranked by enrollment

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

5 schools in West Virginia run programs that feed this job, graduating 196 people a year. The job pays a median of $33,360 in West Virginia across about 4,690 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
196
in West Virginia
Median pay · West Virginia
$33,360
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
4,690
people employed
Schools
5
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
86%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in West Virginia that lead to this job

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

1 programs in West Virginia that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in West Virginia (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 West Virginia page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1196
100.0%
5$42,812$7,572

Top 5 schools in West Virginia

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 5 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Boone Career and Technical Center
Foster, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
51Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor
2Fred W Eberle Technical Center
Buckhannon, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
42Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor98%
3James Rumsey Technical Institute
Martinsburg, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
41Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor77%
4Academy of Careers and Technology
Beckley, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
39Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor81%
5Ben Franklin Career Center
Dunbar, WV Public · 1 feeder programs
23Truck and Bus Driver/Commercial Vehicle Operator and Instructor86%

All 5 schools in West Virginia

Every school in West Virginia 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 West Virginia that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Boone Career and Technical CenterFosterPublic511
Fred W Eberle Technical CenterBuckhannonPublic421
James Rumsey Technical InstituteMartinsburgPublic411
Academy of Careers and TechnologyBeckleyPublic391
Ben Franklin Career CenterDunbarPublic231

What bus drivers, school earn in West Virginia

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

Median annual in West Virginia
$33,360
Mean annual
$33,390
Jobs in state
4,690
What the range looks like
10th pct$29,610Median$33,36090th pct$36,670
Versus the national median
-30.4%

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

Job concentration
2.58×

Concentrated here: West Virginia employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in West Virginia

Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
$34,050median
520 jobs
Wheeling, WV-OH
$35,350median
160 jobs
Morgantown, WV
$34,330median
350 jobs
Charleston, WV
$34,540median
740 jobs
Beckley, WV
$35,070median
250 jobs
Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH
$34,450median
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 West Virginia

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 West Virginia.

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 196 degrees in West Virginia 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 196 people a year in West Virginia.

How much do bus drivers, school earn in West Virginia?+

The median is $33,360 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 30.4% 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 West Virginia?+

5 institutions in West Virginia 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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