Education officials say out of some 3,000 Lāhainā students, about 1,200 have not reenrolled or haven’t contacted the Hawaiʻi Department of Education about their status as of last week.
At Thursday’s Hawaiʻi Board of Education meeting, Deputy Superintendent Heidi Armstrong updated the panel that the department was able to speak with 637 families but still needs to make verbal contact with nearly 500 families.
It’s been a month since the Aug. 8 wildfires blazed through the Valley Isle’s historic town with a death toll 115. While all DOE staff in Lāhainā are accounted for, advocates and teachers are asking for the status of students. It’s unclear how many children have died.
Chair Warren Haruki asked if the students of over 600 families are safe.
“We record that information,” Armstrong said. “Those calls are hard to make because you never know the answer you’re going to get on the other side.”
Armstrong said that the DOE relies on the Maui Police Department to confirm deaths and monitor the missing persons list.
She also said the department’s staff — including homeless liaisons, community navigators and principals — searched for families on foot at the Red Cross centers, shelters and hotels.
“The gravity of that situation — it was chaotic at first,” she said. “We didn’t have communication. We didn’t know where our families were. But that said, we started taking action from the first week.”
Superintendent Keith Hayashi said 782 students have enrolled in other public schools and 907 in the state Distance Learning Program. He added that nearly 345 enrolled in charter and private schools or have withdrawn.
Testifiers voiced their frustration about the need for clarity about the student’s well-being, more communication, and issues with relocating students.
“There’s a lot of anxiety because the students aren’t being identified as safe or deceased,” Susan Pcola-Davis said. “What I don’t understand is why haven’t all the calls been made? I presume that the others that have been located doesn’t mean all of them survived.”
Mara Hollaway asked if the DOE has gone door-to-door in the Lāhainā area for those who don’t have consistent power or internet. She added that the education officials need to be “clear when they’re communicating about the missing students.”
“That these are not physically missing students,” Hollaway said. “They are not potentially kidnapped or deceased. These are students who have simply not reenrolled in the public education system or cannot be accounted for in terms of that. Disinformation is spreading worldwide about this. So we really have to be careful with that.”
There’s at least one Lāhaināluna high schooler who died, NPR confirmed.
The DOE had announced that students will return to their Lāhainā schools in mid-October. As of Thursday, Lāhainā students can ride the bus for free to their temporary school in Central or South Maui.
Three Lāhainā schools — Princess Nāhi‘ena‘ena Elementary, Lāhaina Intermediate and Lāhaināluna High — are undergoing environmental assessment for air, water and soil quality.
Hayashi said the state Department of Health installed air quality sensors at the three campuses, and the DOE hired a contractor to conduct soil sampling. Hayashi noted that the education department is revising its evacuation plans.
King Kamehameha III Elementary was destroyed beyond repair. The DOE plans to relocate students to Princess Nāhi‘ena‘ena Elementary. According to Hayashi, churches, malls and hotels may be considered temporary sites for students.
Hayashi also said that the DOE plans to establish at least three learning hubs in West Maui.
