School Bus Monitors

AI & job outlook

What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.

Exposure to current AI

Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.

OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.2), with simple added tooling (β 0.2), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.2). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.

Job outlook

Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.

“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.

Tasks

All 18 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.

• Announce routes or stops.
• Assist disabled children or children with psychological, emotional, or behavioral issues with boarding and exiting the school bus.
• Buckle seatbelts or fasten wheelchair tie-down straps to secure passengers for transportation.
• Clean school bus interiors by picking up waste, wiping down windows, or vacuuming.
• Direct students boarding and exiting the school bus.
• Direct students evacuating the bus during safety drills.
• Escort young children across roads or highways.
• Evacuate students from the school bus in emergency situations.
• Guide the driver when the bus is moving in reverse gear.
• Monitor for trains at railroad crossings and signal the bus driver when it is safe to proceed.
• Monitor the conduct of students to maintain discipline and safety.
• Open and close school bus doors for students.
• Operate a wheelchair lift to load or unload wheelchairs.
• Prevent or defuse altercations between students.
• Report delays, accidents, or other traffic and transportation situations to dispatchers or other bus drivers, using phones or mobile two-way radios.
• Respond to students' questions, requests, or complaints.
• Talk to children's parents or guardians about problematic behaviors, emotional or developmental problems, or related issues.
• Write and submit reports that include data such as the number of passengers or trips, hours worked, mileage driven, or fuel consumed.

Work activities

• Provide transportation information to passengers or customers.
• Assist students with special educational needs.
• Assist customers to ensure comfort or safety.
• Clean vehicles or vehicle components.
• Assist patrons with entering or exiting vehicles or other forms of transportation.
• Assist passengers during vehicle boarding.
• Assist motorists or pedestrians.
• Communicate with others to coordinate vehicle movement.
• Monitor traffic signals.
• Monitor student behavior, social development, or health.
• Operate vehicles or material-moving equipment.
• Assist disabled or incapacitated individuals.
• Mediate disputes.
• Notify others of emergencies, problems, or hazards.
• Discuss child development and behavior with parents or guardians.
• Provide counsel, comfort, or encouragement to individuals or families.
• Record operational details of travel.

Skills in demand

Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.

• Microsoft Windows Common Skill

Tools & technology

How to get in

Job zone

Zone 2 — Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed

Education

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

Typical entry-level education

High school diploma or equivalent · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement

Related experience

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.

Preparation level

SVP (Below 6.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.

Interests & work styles

The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.

Work styles

Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)

Interest areas

Wages & employment

U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)

Industries that employ this occupation

Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.

Where this work is most concentrated

Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).

Related occupations

Part of the Public Service & Safety career cluster.

• Bus Drivers, School · 53-3051.00 Compare →
• Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity · 53-3052.00 Compare →
• Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs · 53-3053.00 Compare →
• Passenger Attendants · 53-6061.00 Compare →
• Subway and Streetcar Operators · 53-4041.00 Compare →
• Taxi Drivers · 53-3054.00 Compare →
• Crossing Guards and Flaggers · 33-9091.00 Compare →
• Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters · 53-4031.00 Compare →
• Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance · 43-5032.00 Compare →
• Flight Attendants · 53-2031.00 Compare →
• Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary · 11-9032.00 Compare →
• School Psychologists · 19-3034.00 Compare →

Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.

What you can do with this

Options the data surfaces for School Bus Monitors — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-role-33-9094-00,
  title  = {School Bus Monitors},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-33-9094-00}
}