I don’t know about Chatannooga, but where I live, Fairfax County, VA, school bus drivers have to have a CDL; clean driving record; clean FBI record (they’re all fingerprinted and an FBI background check conducted), spend almost 2 months in training before they’re let out onto an actual route with students, and even at that there’s a supervisor riding with them. They are subject to being greeted at any given trip by a supervisor with instructions to appear at a doctor’s office for a urine/drug test within one hour. Don’t show for the test, you lose your job, period. No excuses.
And as of about 10 years ago were paid $25/hour. A friend’s daughter (with a Masters degree) was a school bus driver for FCPS who subsequently applied for a teaching position, and at HR they asked: WHY? The drivers make more $ than teachers.
Things have changed in Fairfax. When I went to school there about half of the drivers were senior high school students. Of course that was the 50s and 60s back when this country had a lot more liberty and freedom.