A couple of years ago some students were selected to perform in an honors choir-my child was one. There were too many students to fit in one school van and no busses were available, so the music teacher asked if I would help. I filled out paperwork with the district and they did a background check and check of my driving record and I became an "authorized district driver". I was covered under the district for anything that happened while I was driving their vehicle for school events.

I'd simply ask the district if they have such a policy or if volunteer drivers are expected to be covered under their own insurance. Once you get your answer, it would be up to the individual parent as to whether they want to take on the liability as a driver and/or allow their child to be transported by the volunteer driver.

If the activity is a school-run sport or activity, then the district should supply the transportation. Teams should not be created that cannot fit on that bus. If you need a larger bus or an additional one, that you need to ask that they purchase one.
Parents are liable should an accident occur while transporting students. If anything happens to a child in a car, the cars owner is responsible and depending on the laws of the state is at risk for a lawsuit against them. If you have an option to have car insurance or not and the driver doesn't, then they risk losing their home.
In this instance, the cheerleaders parent should have driven the daughter. Players should not have been taken off the bus. The players are the reason for the need to travel - not the cheerleaders! If a carpool was unacceptable to the student's parent and no room was on the bus, then she should have had to stay home. In our district, girls and boys are not allowed on the same bus. Next you may hear from this parent that her daughter was inappropriately touched, spoken to, harassed on the bus by players.

You need to raise the concerns at the next school meeting or the school and the parents that are driving could be liable.

Does your school carry insurance on the one bus that you have? If so, see if the insurance company would cover students riding in parents vehicles. If not then parents who are driving need to check their own personal coverage. That is a tough situation if a student is involved in an accident in another parents car when they were attending a school function.

We are a small, private K-12 school located in a small community where everyone knows everyone. We have one small bus that is used to transport athletes. For field trips, all of the parents pitch in and drive students to and from. Recently, a parent brought up concern over liability regarding transporting other people's children. We all know that their is liability involved; however, we have no other means to transport students. This parent's concern caused football players to be taken off the athletic bus and placed in parent vehicles so that the cheerleaders could ride the bus (parent's daughter is a cheerleader). As you can imagine, this has caused quite the controversy. Has anyone had a similar experience and how did you address it?