Bill Text: HI SR200 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging The Department Of Education To Convene A Working Group To Address The State's School Bus Driver Shortage.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-16 - Referred to EDU. [SR200 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SR200-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	200
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the department of education to convene a working group to address the state's school bus driver shortage.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the availability of school bus service is essential to student attendance; and

 

     WHEREAS, school bus service is particularly crucial for families who live in rural and remote areas and students who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United States of America is currently experiencing a national school bus driver shortage; and

 

     WHEREAS, the school bus driver shortage followed the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the transition to virtual learning caused a mass exodus of bus drivers who became sick with the COVID-19 virus, were furloughed from their jobs, or decided to quit; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to an August 2021 survey by the National Association for Pupil Transportation, seventy-eight percent of the 1,500 responding school districts reported being in the midst of a worsening bus driver shortage crisis, with fifty-one percent describing their shortage issues as "severe" or "desperate"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the national bus driver shortage has also impacted Hawaii, which has caused dozens of bus routes to be temporarily suspended and left families scrambling to find alternative ways to transport their children to school; and

 

     WHEREAS, in August of 2021, the Department of Education reported being short by one hundred drivers out of six hundred fifty total positions, amounting to a shortage rate of over fifteen percent; and

 

     WHEREAS, states and school districts across the country have taken steps to relieve the school bus driver shortage, including through the provision of financial incentives; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that the Department of Education is urged to convene a working group to address Hawaii's school bus driver shortage; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Superintendent of Education, or the Superintendent's designee, is requested to serve on the working group; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to invite the following to serve as members of the working group:

 

     (1)  The Chairperson of the Board of Education, or the Chairperson's designee;

 

     (2)  The Director of Transportation, or the Director's designee;

 

     (3)  A representative of the Department of Transportation Services of the City and County of Honolulu;

 

     (4)  A representative of the Department of Public Works of the County of Hawaii;

 

     (5)  A representative of the Transportation Agency of the County of Kauai; and

 

     (6)  A representative of the Department of Transportation of the County of Maui; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to invite representatives from Ground Transportation Inc.; Roberts Hawaii; and any other transportation company who the Department of Education contracts with to provide school bus service in the State; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the working group is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations regarding school bus service, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education; Interim Superintendent of Education; Director of Transportation; Director of Transportation Services of the City and County of Honolulu; Director of Public Works of the County of Hawaii; Executive of the Transportation Agency of the County of Kauai; Director of Transportation of the County of Maui; President of Ground Transportation, Inc.; and Chief Executive Officer of Roberts Hawaii.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Department of Education; School Bus Service; Shortage; Working Group