HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Bus operators would be ready. That's what top school officials said the Department of Education was told before school started.
"If we knew two weeks ago what we know now, we would've probably, maybe three or four weeks before school started, sat down with the contractor and say 'you think you're gonna do it but it doesn't look like it,'" said Randy Moore, DOE interim deputy superintendent.
The House Education Committee called a special hearing Thursday afternoon trying to get to the bottom of the issue.
Just days before school started, the DOE announced the suspension of nearly 150 bus routes on Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island due to driver shortages.
"This school bus crisis happened last year," said Rep. Trish La Chica (D), Education Committee Vice Chair. "Happened the year prior to that. So the issue is not new. Yet we are really struggling to understand why it happened yet again this year."
"It's unacceptable that our communities received notice with only two or three days before school starts," said Rep. Justin Woodson, (D) Education Committee Chair. "Families were scrambling. All the House members were hearing from community members trying to figure out how they're gonna get their kids to school."
Moore pointed out several other facts on the school bus system.
By law, the state is required to provide bus service to special education students, and the number of those students has increased 15% from last year. Which means more buses and more drivers diverted there.
Also, he said school bus driver isn't the most desired job for those with commercial drivers licenses.
"Some school bus drivers think its' the best job in the world but that's not true for every bus driver," said Moore.
" I wanna assure you we are definitely committed to do all we can to rectify this situation in working together with our bus contractors," said Keith Hayashi, DOE superintendent.
About 3,700 students were initially affected. Last week, the DOE announced a new contract that resumes service for about 1,200 students.
"Bottom line is we want to understand better what the challenges are and we want to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future," said Woodson.
Moore told lawmakers in hindsight, the DOE would've handled the situation differently.
Right now, they're focused on getting all the routes up and running again. And they will work on an action plan to prevent this from happening again.