STAND. COM. REP. NO. 935

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 832

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 832, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow a student who is enrolled at a public charter school that has been notified of the prospect of revocation or nonrenewal or closure, to enroll in a Department of Education school outside the student's service area.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that a school closure causes hardship for families and communities.  Families are faced with finding a school that is convenient for work and childcare purposes, sometimes with little notice.  Community schools are faced with the task of accommodating dozens, if not hundreds, of new students.  Making geographic exceptions available to students affected by a public charter school closure, thereby allowing those children to attend Department of Education schools outside their service area, is an appropriate accommodation to relieve the burden that public charter school closures place on families and schools.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by removing language authorizing geographic exceptions for students that have been notified of the prospect of charter nonrenewal.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 832, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 832, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair