Department of Education officials say they are reconsidering the eligibility requirements for school bus service after an outcry from parents and elected officials that followed route cuts two weeks ago.

At a hearing yesterday during which City Council members and the public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, criticized the Bloomberg administration for administering bus route cuts during one of the coldest weeks of the year, Chancellor Joel Klein said the city would re-examine a requirement that students must live within a quarter mile from a stop to be eligible for bus service for next year. He also said it would look into implementing an age cut-off to prevent young children that travel to school alone from receiving Metro Cards, although he did not specify at what age the cut-off would be.

For the first time, department officials also released numbers showing that 13,300 students that had requested bus service were denied and given Metro Cards instead. During the hearing, Ms. Gotbaum called on the department to fire the private consultant group, Alvarez and Marsal, which advised the cuts.

Mr. Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, who also testified, said they would not fire the consultants — who they said had not been involved in decisions about specific route changes — or roll back the changes.

“We will not go back to a system that was wasting taxpayer dollars,” Mr. Walcott said.

Messrs. Klein and Walcott were also questioned about a report that included suggestions for cutting the city’s school bus routes that was conducted by another private consultant, Accenture, two years ago. The report suggested that 1% to 3% of routes could be considered for a “one time reduction,” and found 135 morning routes and 137 afternoon routes with less than 30 riders and lengths less than 45 minutes long that were “high priority candidates for optimization.”

During testimony at the hearing, Education Department officials said they would have to examine the Accenture report again before responding. Later, a Department of Education spokeswoman, Debra Wexler, said the study had focused primarily around “recommending efficiencies in procurement, to identify savings through contracts and purchasing decisions.” The report did not duplicate Alvarez and Marsal’s work, department officials said.

Mr. Klein and Mr. Walcott also repeated apologies for the inconveniences caused by the cuts, but speaking to reporters yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg was less conciliatory.

“I think there were the teething pains which you would expect,” he said. “Could they have done it better? Could they have handled the press better? Sure. But let’s get on with it and get things done.”