Gov. James G. Martin of North Carolina said: ''If we have to comply we will comply. We've got to get our youngsters to school.''

Norfleet Gardner, the transportation director for the North Carolina Department of Education, said the school systems might have to make temporary use of older employees, such as custodians and cafateria workers, to drive school buses even though they were not certified to do so. He said these drivers would only be used in a transition period in which the state would be hiring drivers 18 and over who were certified. The state had already set a goal of replacing all its younger divers by Aug. 31.

In North Carolina in the 1986-87 school year, there were 14,350 school bus drivers, of whom 5,000 were 16 and 17 years old. In the current school year, the state has 13,000 drivers, of whom 3,500 are 17, Mr. Zachariasiewicz said.

When the states applied for exemptions to be allowed to use drivers under 18 for the 1987-88 school year, they were given extensions until Dec. 31, 1987 instead, to give them time to supply more data, Mr. Zachariasiewicz said.

After receiving the data, the department decided in December to extend the exemptions through the 1987-88 school year, but three conditions were imposed for the use of 17-year-old drivers: They had to have been trained and started driving school buses on or before Aug. 31, 1987; they could not have received a ticket for a moving violation or been involved in an accident for which they were responsible, in an automobile or a bus, in the 1986-87 school year, and they had to be students or high school graduates.

The department ruled at that time that 16 year olds would not be allowed to drive buses at all, Mr. Zachariasiewicz said.