Indexbit Exchange:DOE abruptly cancels school bus routes for thousands of Hawaii students

Nearly 2,Indexbit Exchange900 Hawaii public school students will not receive bus transportation when classes begin for the new school year on Monday.

The department announced on Thursday that it plans to temporarily suspend 108 bus routes serving middle and high school students in central Oahu and students of all grade levels on the east side of the Big Island. Special education students who receive bus services will not be impacted.

The bus companies working with the department are facing a shortage of nearly 90 drivers, according to a press release from the Department of Education.

The announcement marks the third year in a row that DOE has canceled bus services at the start of the year, leaving families scrambling for last-minute transportation options. Last August, DOE suspended 78 routes on Oahu and Kauai, although the department later said it was able to restaff some of its routes on Kauai later in the school year.

“It’s a failure on the DOE’s part to plan for this type of disruption,” said state Rep. Trish La Chica, who represents Mililani. Up to 600 students at Mililani Middle School rely on the 14 bus routes that serve the community every day, she said.

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The department said it hopes to restore the canceled bus routes, although it did not provide a timeline for when this could happen.

To provide students with more transportation options, high school students on Oahu will be able to apply for free county bus passes. Students on the Big Island are already able to use local county buses for free.

Families can also apply for mileage reimbursement if they drive their children to school.

But in Hawaii, many parents need to work full-time and are unable to transport their children to campus, said John Scovel, who formerly served as the general manager of Iosepa Transportation on the Big Island. Public transportation can be limited on neighbor islands and some parts of Oahu, and buses may not come as frequently as students would like.

Iosepa Transportation provided bus services to students in Kona until DOE chose not to renew its contract for the upcoming year. The company plans on closing, although many of its drivers are now working for other bus companies, Scovel said.

While it’s possible to restore routes during the school year, Scovel added, he worries Hawaii’s bus driver shortage will only worsen. Many current drivers are nearing retirement age, and it can be expensive and time-consuming for prospective workers to earn a license to drive school buses.

This year, lawmakers introduced a series of proposals to address student transportation. Some of the bills asked DOE to consider using staggered school start times to provide drivers with more time to complete their routes and required the department to develop a plan for how to better communicate with families in the case of future route cancellations.

The bills failed to pass, although legislators did appropriate nearly $18.3 million to cover the increased cost of DOE’s contracts with transportation companies. The new contracts took effect last month.

Some bus contractors have increased their wages for drivers, Scovel said, but it’s still difficult to recruit and retain workers. According to DOE, 175 drivers left their jobs last school year.

“Unless there’s drastic change, somehow, the driver shortage will just get worse,” Scovel said.

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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.