How to transfer your Bus driver licence to Indiana (2026)

Bus driver work in Indiana is licensed at state level, by the Indiana driver licence agency. Indiana gives new residents 30 days to transfer a driver's licence, including a CDL. This page says what a bus driver licensed or working in another state has to do to work in Indiana, in the order to do it, and what goes wrong when the order is reversed.

How the transfer works

A bus driver's CDL with passenger (P) and school bus (S) endorsements transfers like any CDL, within 30 days of residency, at a Indiana driver licence office. The school bus endorsement needs a fresh background check in Indiana, and school districts and transit agencies add their own training and testing on hire.

How long: same day for the licence; a district background check adds weeks. Fee: $30 to $150; the current figure is on the licensing body's own site.

What to have ready before you move

• Current CDL with P and S endorsements
• DOT medical certificate
• Driving record

Start the paperwork before you give notice. Every week the licence is not done is a week you are not paid, and nothing in the process needs you to be in Indiana already.

What people get wrong

• Assuming the S endorsement carries without a new background check
• Underestimating the district's own training requirement

Who hires bus drivers in Indiana

Bus drivers in Indiana are hired by school districts, transit agencies, charter companies and contractors like First Student. The metros with the most of that work are Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville and South Bend. Employers who could not hire locally and have filed with the Department of Labor are on the Indiana openings page.

For the money side: the median bus driver in Indiana earned $50,400 a year ($24 an hour) in May 2024 across 1,710 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Indiana has a flat 3% state income tax. What that leaves you after tax is its own page.

Indiana also has a program that pay people to move in: MakeMyMove town offers (typically $5,000 plus local perks, for remote workers moving to participating Indiana towns (Noblesville, Greensburg and others); each offer is its own program). Each has a residence condition and a funding round.

Everything about Indiana, on one page

The Indiana page has the registries and boards, the income tax table, the programs that pay you to come and the openings filed this month. If you know which state you are leaving, the move pages compare the two directly. Creating a free Workmerica profile with your trade and your destination puts you in front of Indiana employers hiring from out of state.