East Stroudsburg School District Gets $38,750 to Recruit and Train Bus Drivers

The East Stroudsburg Area School District was awarded $38,750 through Pennsylvania’s School Bus Safety Grant Program to help recruit and train new school bus drivers, according to a July 22, 2026 announcement from state Rep. Tarah Probst.

The award is relevant to Stroudsburg-area families whose students are served by the district. The grant recipient, however, is the East Stroudsburg Area School District, not the Borough of Stroudsburg.

What the grant can support

The grant program can cover costs connected with preparing people to drive school buses, including commercial driver’s license training, trainee wages, and testing and permit fees. Probst’s announcement said the East Stroudsburg award is part of a statewide investment of more than $1.1 million intended to help schools and transportation providers train more than 430 new school bus drivers.

The funding is intended to support recruitment and training. It does not by itself announce a specific number of hires, a route expansion or a change to the district’s transportation schedule.

Why it matters locally

The district operates student transportation for its K-12 schools. Its official transportation page provides route and service resources and links to a CDL training class. The district’s recruitment system also identifies school bus driver CDL classes as a free training opportunity for prospective employees.

That could give qualified applicants a lower-cost path into school bus driving, subject to district requirements and the availability of training. For parents and students, any transportation benefit will depend on how the district uses the award and whether recruitment and training result in additional qualified drivers.

Federal education records identify the East Stroudsburg Area School District as a regular local school district headquartered at 50 Vine St. in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County. The district reported 6,353 students for the 2024-25 school year and serves a broader area than the selected coverage place of Stroudsburg.

Residents should use the district’s school-assignment and transportation tools to determine whether a particular address is within the district’s attendance and transportation area. Stroudsburg borough residents are not automatically district residents simply because the district serves the surrounding region.

What is not yet known

The public announcements do not establish how many drivers the $38,750 will support, when the district will spend the funds, or whether routes, schedules or service levels will change. The award also does not guarantee new hires or eliminate transportation delays.

For families in the Stroudsburg area, the immediate development is the availability of state support for driver recruitment and training. The practical effect will become clearer after the district implements the grant and reports any resulting staffing or transportation changes.

Sources

• Rep. Tarah Probst announcement
• East Stroudsburg Area School District transportation page
• NCES East Stroudsburg Area SD district record