The Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) confronted a crisis in August, just days before the school year began: 160 school bus routes were suspended across Oahu, Hawaii island and Maui because contractors couldn’t find enough qualified drivers for the state’s school buses. The breakdowns were announced Aug. 1-2; school started on Aug. 5.

This inconvenienced a staggering 3,720 students along 164 routes. Parents were forced to scramble to arrange for transportation, and it likely resulted in some lost school attendance.

It was unconscionable of the DOE — a huge and harmful fumble — to fail to address the bus driver shortage in a more proactive fashion, at the very least by providing parents with better advance notice. Gov. Josh Green issued an emergency proclamation the day after DOE’s upsetting reveal, allowing DOE to contract with companies that operate vans or smaller buses to fill in the gap, and deleting the requirement that drivers have a special commercial driver’s license Hawaii requires for a school bus to take the wheel. But Green has been forced to renew that order since the strandings began, and as of last week, 16 routes had still not been restored.

This failure in service to students and their families must not repeat itself, and DOE must ensure that it doesn’t. Though it’s a shame, legislative action is required to require that DOE do what most would consider essential: track readiness for school bus routes and communicate clearly with schools and families about the situation.

On Feb. 11, the House Education Committee heard four bills aimed at the problem, referring all to the Finance Committee for a third reading. All bills, appropriately, loosen the requirement that drivers have a commercial license, allowing for a bigger pool of potential drivers.

>> Legislation firming up DOE contract expectations and reporting requirements is clearly necessary, as proposed in House Bill 861 and companion Senate Bill 1198. These bills create statutory accountability for both school transportation contractors and DOE: The contractor would be required to submit a “detailed annual contingency plan” for driver shortages or fleet capacity issues; and the DOE would be required to assess transportation readiness no less than 30 days before the school year starts. The bill requires “protocols for real-time updates … on unexpected service disruptions,” and “clear guidance” to families on accessing alternative transportation. The Leg would get annual reports on contractor performance and reliability from DOE.

>> HB 862 and its companion, SB 1199, would permanently allow the DOE to use alternate transportation such as charter buses, small buses and vans. Supporters include the DOE, Hawaii State Teachers Association and Hawaii Department of Transportation. This option must be swiftly approved.

>> HB 288 authorizes a staggered school hours program to accommodate bus service, and appropriates funds to buy vehicles and to “incentivize” drivers for obtaining a commercial driver’s license. As staggering school hours would require union negotiations and community outreach, this bill creates expectations that could be hard to fulfill and so isn’t ready for primetime.

>> As for HB 683 and companion SB 864, which permanently create and fund four additional DOE “student transportation coordinators”: with uncertainty over federal funding levels high, it’s inappropriate to add permanent additional staffing and expense to administrative services. The DOE has eight district transportation officers, and frankly should have already developed a monitoring, accountability and communications protocol for school bus service. DOE must take responsibility to direct adequate resources to this task, and to remedy the failures of oversight that allowed last year’s bus fiasco to develop.