BALLY PA – A Berks County provider of transportation for the Boyertown Area and Oley Valley school districts has won a Pennsylvania grant to train new school bus drivers, the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) reports.
Quigley Bus Service Inc., 326 Main St., will receive $7,816 to cover new driver training costs. The money pays for the company’s expenses of commercial driver’s license training, trainee wages, and testing and permit fees, the department said Tuesday (July 21, 2026) in a media release.
Quigley’s is the only busing provider in Berks County to receive reimbursement in the latest round of the state School Bus Safety Grant Program. Only one grant also was issued in Montgomery County, to the Upper Dublin School District in Maple Glen PA for $6,395. No grants were issued in Chester County.
Overall, the department awarded more than $1.1 million to 26 transporters in 19 counties. PennDOT says its goal is to train more than 430 drivers to ensure safer, reliable school transportation statewide.
“This funding gives schools and communities the support they need,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll says, by “making sure we have enough qualified drivers to get students to and from school safely and reliably.” The grants represent the state’s second investment in school bus safety this year, he adds.
The Quigley website states it is currently looking to hire bus drivers, aides, and van drivers. Persons interested in those positions can apply online.
https://www.quigleybus.com/careers/apply.aspx?id=1
Top photo from Getty Images on Unsplash+, used under license
Where the Money Comes From
The grant money comes from fines collected in enforcing Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law. The law requires drivers approaching a school bus, with its red lights flashing and stop-arm activated, to stop at least 10 feet from the bus.
Drivers who pass a stopped school bus violate the law and endanger students’ lives. The state allows school districts to install and operate camera systems that can be used to track and identify violators. A portion of the $300 fine charged for those violations is paid into the grant program.
Automated school bus enforcement program data for 2024 reports 76,413 violations were recorded in that year alone.
Above photo from Getty Images on Unsplash+, used under license
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