In response to parents’ pleas for reliable school transportation, the House Education Committee today will consider bills aimed at preventing a repeat of the abrupt cancellations of 108 bus routes at the start of this year’s school year, which was a repeat of the start of the 2023 school year.

House Bill 861 would identify student transportation as a “critical service” for Hawaii’s public education system, putting pressure on the Department of Education to prioritize school bus service across the islands.

House Bill 683 and its companion, Senate Bill 864, would fund permanent student transportation coordinator positions for each county.

House Bill 862, its companion, Senate Bill 1199, and House Bill 288 would allow alternate transportation like motor coaches, small buses and vans to be used to drive children to and from school.

All the bills also would loosen the more stringent requirement for holders of commercial driver’s licenses to allow them to transport school-age children.

Just before classes were to start in fall 2023, the DOE abruptly notified parents that it was forced to cancel school bus routes.

Then last fall, the DOE again notified 3,720 students and their families that it was suspending 108 bus routes through Central Oahu, parts of Maui and Hawaii island, forcing them to find new ways to get children to and from school.

Both times, Gov. Josh Green issued emergency proclamations to both lower the more stringent commercial driver’s license standards required to drive schoolchildren and for other companies to be able to provide service with vans and small buses.

Ground Transport Inc., which has the DOE school bus contract, has gradually worked to restore service.

“Since then we’ve restored 95 percent of the impacted routes,” Nanea Ching, the DOE’s communications director, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Today’s House Education Committee hearing also will consider other bills that would affect thousands of students and their families across the islands, including HB 1343, which would ban the use of cellphones during school hours.

Among other possible solutions, the DOE plans to avoid future school bus route cancellations by:

>> Requiring its contractors to provide weekly reports on bus driver availability and hiring.

>> Providing unspecified “early notification” to families if it anticipates a driver shortage.

>> Encouraging principals to offer part-time employment opportunities for school staff to work as bus drivers.

>> Staggering contract expiration dates to avoid large-scale driver turnover.

>> Annually auditing and consolidating low-ridership routes.

Rep. Justin Woodson (D, Kahului-Puunene) chairs the House Education Committee and co-introduced some of the school transportation reforms.

Some of the DOE’s planned improvements should already have been implemented, he said.

“If a (transportation) provider is getting together their business plan and implementation strategy for the school year and they figure out that they’re lacking school buses, or in most cases don’t have enough drivers with CDLs to fulfill the routes, they’re supposed to reach out to the Department of Education to let them know, but that hasn’t happened in the past,” Woodson said. “So for the department to be recommending something that should already be in place, I’m perplexed as to why that is.”

Rep. Trish La Chica (D, Waipio-Mililani) — vice chair of the House Education Committee, who also co-introduced some of the bus-related bills — knows how disrupting last-minute cancellations can be for families who have to scramble.

“It’s severe disruption for a family that didn’t prepare for this, that have work commitments, that have early shifts,” La Chica said.

“I’ve had to hear from parents who have had to seriously consider leaving their job or beg their neighbors to help with carpool,” La Chica said. “It just really puts our families and kids at a disadvantage.”

Dan Smith, a member of the Pearl City Neighborhood Board, often has to drive his three grandkids to and from school and plans to testify today in the hope that the DOE will ensure reliable bus service next fall and beyond.

“We need bus drivers so they can restore the previous Pearl City High School bus that used to serve the Palisades area,” Smith told the Star-Advertiser.

He planned to testify on HB 861, which would identify student transportation as a “critical service” and would mean “the DOE really has to pay more attention to solving the problem.”