HB 861 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION.

Summary

Designates student transportation as critical infrastructure and a critical service for Hawaii's public education system. Requires all school bus contracts between the State and the contractor to include certain standards, performance metrics, and accountability requirements to prevent service disruptions. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Issues: ✓ Education ✓ Transportation

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 21, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

HB861 → HB861_HD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to fix a future effective date of July 1, 3000, to a more reasonable date of July 1, 2026, and to standardize the language regarding service disruption timelines from 'prior to' to 'before' the start of the school year. These changes ensure the legislation becomes active at a logical time and uses consistent terminology for reporting requirements.

TIMELINE

The effective date of the Act was changed from July 1, 3000, to July 1, 2026, likely to align with the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

REQUIREMENT

The phrase 'prior to the start of the school year' was changed to 'before the start of the school year' in multiple sections to ensure consistent language regarding notification deadlines.

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting and header updates were made to reflect the House of Representatives version (HD1) of the bill.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 13, 2025

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 578) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on EDN recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 11 Ayes: Representative(s) Woodson, La Chica, Amato, Evslin, Garrett, Kapela, Kila, Olds, Sayama, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Committee

Referred to EDN, FIN, referral sheet 3

lower

Jan 23, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

12 primary · 0 co-sponsors