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Robert Chavez doesn’t know how his son will get to school at the end of the month.

A shortage of drivers means Honouliuli Middle School has fewer school bus passes available for students, and Chavez’s son didn’t receive one for the last quarter of the school year. Chavez said he’ll either need to drop off his son before work at 6:45 a.m., or arrive late to his own teaching job at Nanakuli High and Intermediate.

His son could take the city bus, but Chavez has reservations about sending a 12-year-old on what he says would be an hourlong trip to school every day.

“The school bus is convenient, it’s safe, you can get familiarized with procedures,” Chavez said. “I’m sure we can do that with the city bus too, but it’s not probably the safest of all transportation.”  

Since the Hawaii Department of Education began reporting shortages of school bus drivers during the Covid-19 pandemic, students have relied on an imperfect system of carpools, county buses and long walks to school every day. Families will likely face limited transportation options for at least another year, while the department and lawmakers search for ways to address the problem. 

Legislators introduced a dozen bills relating to the bus driver shortage in the 2024 session, several of which are still moving forward. Proposals ranged from using motorcoaches and vans for student transportation to subsidizing the costs of training and licensure for prospective bus drivers.

The DOE also plans on entering into a new contract with school bus companies in July that will increase drivers’ salaries by 20%. Still, it does not anticipate restoring any routes next school year, said Cindy Matsushita, DOE’s student transportation services administrator.  

“We’re looking currently at just maintaining the current levels of drivers that we have,” Matsushita said. 

A Shrinking Workforce

Hawaii’s school bus driver workforce was already declining before 2020, but the pandemic exacerbated the problem, Matsushita said. School bus drivers are typically in their 50s and 60s, and many retired or sought other jobs when online learning began, she added. 

In an to the Board of Education, the department estimated that at least 120 drivers left their jobs in the 2020-21 school year.

Two weeks before the start of the 2023-24 school year, DOE announced it was short more than 200 drivers and planned to cancel 61 bus routes on Oahu and 17 on Kauai that served roughly 1,300 students. Nine routes on Kauai have since been restaffed.

Hawaii isn't alone in its struggles. Nationally, the number of school bus drivers has dropped 15% since 2019, according to the .  

While working as a school bus driver is rewarding, it can be financially challenging, said John Scovel, general manager of Iosepa Transportation, which provides bus services to Kona students. School bus drivers only have a few hours of paid employment in the morning and afternoon and typically don’t work during school holidays, Scovel said.     

Earning the licensing and credentials needed to drive a school bus can also take at least a month of intensive study and cost roughly $5,000, he added. 

To attract more workers, Iosepa Transportation and other school bus providers offer free in-house training to drivers who commit to working for the company for a few years. Still, Scovel said, only two people in the last year expressed interest in training.

“To do this job, you need to have a passion for it. Plain and simple,” he said.

Public Transit Doesn't Work For All

To fill the gaps in school transportation services across the state, DOE began offering free county bus passes to high school students in the fall of 2022. The Expanding Ridership to Educate Students in Schools program continued this year, serving roughly 17,600 students on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

The county bus service is already free to riders on the Big Island and doesn’t require students to sign up for the EXPRESS program.

Since EXPRESS passes are also good outside of school hours, they allow students to enjoy more independence and access new jobs or extracurriculars, said Kathleen Rooney, director of transportation policy and programs at Ulupono Initiative. She’s hopeful the passes can help reduce some of the absenteeism and tardiness in schools stemming from students’ lack of transportation.  

But bus services remain out of reach for some families. 

Nitsala Marx said her son began the year taking a 45-minute bike ride from Pearl City High School to the family's home in Waipio after DOE cancelled the bus routes serving his campus. But when he was hit by a car and injured, Marx said the family had to look for alternatives.

Now, Marx said, her son takes the city bus home, but the route requires transferring buses and takes at least two hours. 

“We cannot continue going the way we’re going now,” Marx said. 

While Honolulu has a dense network of bus routes, fewer options are available on the neighbor islands and the Leeward Coast, where six high schools faced cuts in bus services this year, said Roger Chen, a professor in the University of Hawaii Manoa’s College of Engineering. For example, he said, while there are frequent routes running from the Leeward Coast into Honolulu, students may face long wait times between buses if they’re only traveling within their neighborhoods. 

“It’s not a substitute for a personal vehicle, it's not a substitute for a school bus in the morning,” Chen said. 

New Proposals On The Horizon

After three years of severe driver shortages, lawmakers are trying to find solutions.

One , small buses and vans to transport students. With fewer licensing and training requirements needed to drive those vehicles, more workers may be eligible and willing to serve Hawaii schools, said Rep. Darius Kila.

"We've got to get creative, and I think that was the thing I learned firsthand," said Kila, who spent time last August driving the smaller school buses currently designated for special education students.

Another of staggered school start times on student learning and bus schedules. If the department could implement the staggered schedules, Matsushita said, bus drivers would have additional time to cover more routes.

A final bill of students' transportation needs and better communicate with families if it cuts additional bus routes.

Trish La Chica, vice chair of the House Education Committee, said she’s hopeful the bills will offer families more transportation options in the new school year. Students can't fully focus on their classes if they're worried about their safety or ride home from school, she said.

“This issue directly impacts thousands of students,” La Chica said. “The kids feel miserable.”

But some proposals come with tradeoffs, said Curt Macysyn, executive director of the National School Transportation Association. For example, he said, using smaller vehicles may jeopardize student safety, since school buses are specifically built to withstand collisions and protect children. Staggering schools’ start times could allow fewer buses to serve more students, he added, but if a worker calls in sick or quits, more routes would be left without a driver. 

With DOE's current set of contracts with bus companies set to end this school year, the department will enter into new agreements with three main contractors in July, Matsushita said. While individual companies set the hourly wages for their drivers, Matsushita said the price of DOE's new contract will increase by 20%. Correction: An earlier version of this story said DOE's new contract will include a 20% pay increase for drivers.

The new contract follows the 30% pay raise DOE covered last year to help companies recruit more drivers mid-contract.

The governor's proposed budget includes nearly $18.3 million to cover the costs of DOE's bus contracts next school year.

At Iosepa Transportation, Scovel said he understands why people are reluctant to become school bus drivers, given the limited work hours and responsibility of overseeing 50 students at a time. But as the shortage continues, it's students who face the greatest consequences, he said.

“You can’t control the flow of people you have applying for the position,” Scovel said. “But the ones that suffer are the students.”

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.