STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2391

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2486

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2486 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION DATA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Education to:

(1) Establish a standardized data collection process;

(2) Collect and analyze data relating to, among other things, student discipline, school climate, and student achievement; and

(3) Annually report certain information to the Board of Education, Legislature, and the public.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, AAUW of Hawaii, Special Education Advisory Council, Hawaii Children Action Network Speaks!, Common Cause Hawaii, and five private individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Disability Rights Center.

Your Committee finds that the United States Department of Education requires all school districts to submit biennially a set of data indicators called the Civil Rights Data Collection. The last published collection was the 2015-2016 school year. The Department of Education sends a guidance memo out each time the Civil Rights Data Collection needs submission but does not have official policies or requirements for how individual schools and complex areas must submit and verify this data. Individual principals send in their data, and it is up to those principals and complex area superintendents to verify this data. The Department of Education does not verify the accuracy of this data or enforce data collection best practices.

Your Committee further finds that the Department of Education does not adequately publish or make available data to families and advocates. The types of data collection and analysis required in this measure have been implemented in part or whole in over thirty states. This legislation is necessary to identify instances of disparity between the most vulnerable populations of students and ensure that the disparities are rectified.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Including student seclusion and restraint data in the report;

(2) Increasing the number of students in a particular data subgroup to 10 for data to be reported;

(3) Including public charter schools; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

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 S.B. No. 2486, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2486, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair