Hawaii County and the state have reported a significant shortage of school bus drivers for the upcoming year, according to the state Department of Education.
The Big Island is short 71 drivers out of a total of 184 needed to be considered fully staffed and have all routes available.
For the state, the shortage is between 225 and 230 drivers, down from a total of 650 drivers prior to the pandemic.
Over the last school year, 76 school bus drivers have vacated their positions statewide.
“We’ve lost 25 to 30% of our pool,” said DOE Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Operations Randall Tanaka during a press conference on Tuesday. “Letters are going out to the families today and tomorrow to notify them of what options they have.”
With a majority of schools starting Aug. 7, the DOE will partner with counties to utilize public transportation and replace some of the impacted routes.
While 14 schools across the state will have their services partially or fully suspended, Hawaii Island routes will be modified but not suspended at the moment.
“School bus routes on Maui and Hawaii Island have been modified,” Tanaka confirmed. “Some of them are a continuum of what happened last year, when we had to reduce some of those routes, but right now, they’re more stable than the rest of the situations.”
In 2021, Hawaii County’s Department of Transportation announced a partnership with the DOE to help alleviate the shortage of drivers.
The collaboration allowed middle, intermediate and high school students who live near existing Hele-On routes to get free Hele-On monthly passes, with the cost supplemented by the DOE.
Through December of 2023, Hawaii County Mass Transit Agency also announced Hele-On service is free for all passengers due to $4.5 million received from federal pandemic-relief funding.
Hawaii County Mass Transit Administrator Victor Kandle did not return multiple calls for comment prior to publication about whether the free service would continue past 2023 for students, or if Hele-On would change current routes to accommodate students by offering pick-ups or drop-offs directly on school property.
Regarding the safety of students taking county buses, Roger Mortin, director of the Department of Transportation services at the City and County of Honolulu, offered several recommendations.
“We always urge people to sit close to the driver, that’s one thing, and to consider the driver as their friend,” Mortin said on Tuesday. “So if anything does happen, and it’s rare, the driver is there to try to provide a level of security.”
The shortage was mainly attributed to drivers searching for alternative jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, when students participated in virtual learning and routes were canceled.
“During the period of COVID, when everyone was out for two years, clearly the drivers, to sustain their families, needed to find other jobs,” Tanaka said, adding that another factor behind the shortage was the federal requirement for school bus drivers to receive an additional class level of licensing beyond Commercial Driver Licensing, or CDL.
“School transport requires a different level of CDL licensing, so not anyone with a CDL license can drive,” Tanaka said. “The equipment is different, and how we manage student transport is different.”
According to Tanaka, recruitment tools are being considered by bus companies to hire additional drivers.
“We’ve tried numerous strategies to try and get drivers aboard, whether it be hiring pools, hiring bonuses, but it’s just a tough go,” Tanaka said. “At the same time, whether it be retirement or whatever reason, we continue to lose drivers.”
The DOE is hopeful canceled routes will be restored once more drivers are hired.
“We don’t have a bus shortage, we don’t have a vehicle shortage,” Tanaka said. “It’s all dependent upon the drivers.”
A list of Hele-On routes to schools can be viewed at: https://tinyurl.com/ythkvrjk
“The challenge we face in student transportation is not unique to us,” Tanaka said. “It is a national issue across the country.”
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitirbune-herald.com