State legislators met with the Department of Education on Thursday to address protracted concerns about ongoing public school bus driver shortages, following the DOE’s abrupt announcement of suspended routes right before the school year began.

Less than a week into the school year, the DOE announced the suspension of 108 bus routes, affecting nearly 2,900 students.

Due to a shortage of bus drivers with the required commercial driver’s licenses, the department temporarily suspended routes in Central Oahu and East Hawaii island to prioritize transportation for students with disabilities, as mandated by federal law.

The number of drivers for regular-education students has decreased to 235 this year, down from 254 in 2023, continuing a steady downward trend from 423 drivers in 2014.

DOE schools Deputy Superintendent Randy Moore described the trend as both a “local phenomenon” and a “national phenomenon.”

Moore said the DOE is making “contractor adjustments” to address the issue but has faced early challenges as new drivers and dispatchers are still getting accustomed to addresses and routes.

Under the current contract, there are 373 regular- education buses, but as of a few weeks ago, only 275 drivers were available to operate them.

Due to a shortage of drivers among bus contractors, the DOE determined July 30 for Oahu and Hawaii island students, and Aug. 2 for Maui students, that some bus routes could not be serviced and needed to be suspended.

“In fairness to the bus contractors, they kept us apprised of their driver situation but also said, ‘We think we’re going to make it,’” Moore said. “If we had thought about it, we would have done it differently.”

State Rep. Trish La Chica (D, Waipio-Mililani) expressed her frustration that the issue of bus driver shortages has persisted for years and continues to affect families and students.

“This is an issue that didn’t happen just this school year. I know this happened last school year. This has happened the year prior. It’s an ongoing crisis,” La Chica said. “And then yet, we were all caught off guard two days before the school year started to not have received any type of outreach, any type of planning, any type of consideration of communities. … Hundreds of families like that were experiencing severe disruptions.

“What this translates to me is it’s a failure on the department’s side to have acted on this information that you had received weeks prior to the school year starting, and really prevent this from happening,”

Moore responded that the department will continue to plan and seek solutions to mitigate the issue. Even if the number of school bus drivers continues to decline, the department is committed to supporting students and finding ways to minimize the impact on their services.

On Aug. 2, just a day after the DOE announced suspending bus routes, Gov. Josh Green signed an emergency proclamation to bolster school bus services to help public schoolchildren get to and from school.

Moore said the proclamation allowed the DOE to contract directly with Roberts Hawaii to provide buses, stepping in with an additional 10 bus routes, and also allowed ground transport to subcontract with tour bus companies such as the Polynesian Adventures bus.

The proclamation allowed for bus operators to drive a yellow school bus despite federal regulations that say only school bus drivers are allowed to operate school buses.

DOE schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the department was informed by the contractors about the shortage a week before the Aug. 1 announcement to suspend bus routes.

Hayashi mentioned that the student transportation section collaborates with the contract provider, the assistant superintendent for the area and himself to address the issue.

“If there’s anyone that would accept responsibility for what happened, you can put that on me,” Hayashi said.

He also said the problem of student transportation was exacerbated by various staffing changes within the transportation sector.

State Rep. Jeanne Kapela (D, Volcano-Hawaiian Ocean View) urged the DOE to take accountability and improve communication with both contractors and the community.

“It seems like it’s partially the contract, which is absolutely a problem, but I think it’s also a staffing issue within the DOE as well that seems to have led to this, so I hope that there’s better communication in that,” Kapela said.