Bill Text: HI SCR23 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The Department Of Education To Expand Transportation Services In The Pearl City School District.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-21 - The committee on EDU deferred the measure. [SCR23 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SCR23-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	23
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

Requesting the department of education to expand transportation services in the pearl city school district.

 

 

     WHEREAS, the Pearl City School District is experiencing a transportation shortage, primarily due to a reported bus driver shortage; and

 

     WHEREAS, transportation issues and bus driver shortages in the Pearl City School District have existed since at least 1991; and

 

     WHEREAS, the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and related impacts have exacerbated the transportation shortage during 2021; and

 

     WHEREAS, safe and reliable transportation to and from school is critical to academic success; and

 

     WHEREAS, parents have reported that more than a dozen Pearl City students currently lack transportation services and are on a waitlist; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the Department of Education's Student Transportation Services Branch:

 

     (1)  Students must live at least one mile away from the school to qualify for regular school bus service;

 

     (2)  Students who live less than one mile may be waitlisted for bus service even if there are unused seats on the bus and it will not result in cost to the State;

 

     (3)  Only full-sized school buses are deployed for most routes and routes must have a minimum number of student riders (i.e., forty-eight for elementary schools) to qualify for bus service;

     (4)  Students not qualifying for a free bus pass are required to pay up to $72.00, quarterly, for transportation services;

 

     (5)  Approximately fifteen-thousand students use bus services on Oahu and eighteen-thousand use bus services on the neighbor islands; and

 

     (6)  Pearl City School enrollment is approximately five thousand, and approximately five hundred of these students use bus services to and from school; and

 

     WHEREAS, to address the current transportation shortage, the Department of Education launched a mileage reimbursement program on September 1, 2021; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Education is requested to work expeditiously to achieve the following:

 

     (1)  Immediately provide bus service to all students in the Pearl City School District who are currently on the waitlist for bus services;

 

     (2)  Identify schools in the Pearl City School District that lack regular transportation services;

 

     (3)  Utilize smaller buses and lower route ridership to maximize transportation options for students;

 

     (4)  Enhance direct outreach opportunities between the Department of Education, schools, and parents to discuss changing demographics and transportation needs in the district;

 

     (5)  Develop a bus driver and commercial driver license training and feeder program;

 

     (6)  Establish a driver "pool" by collaborating with teachers, parents, unions, senior groups, community nonprofit organizations, the military, and the university system; and

 

     (7)  Explore staggered school start and end times to facilitate student transportation; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Department of Education.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Education; Transportation; School Bus Service