CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 59

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2021

RE: S.B. No. 813

H.D. 1

C.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sirs:

Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 813, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHARTER SCHOOLS,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

The purpose of this measure is to require authorizers to provide to each charter school it oversees a list of approved independent auditors.

Your Committee on Conference finds that charter schools may only select an auditor from a list of three auditors selected by the authorizer. There are currently not enough auditors in Hawaii to meet the required timeline to ensure charter school audits are included in the consolidated annual financial reports. Your Committee further finds that many of the auditors selected by the authorizer are based on Oahu, which makes it more difficult for charter schools on the other islands to complete their audits and forces those charter schools to incur additional expenses and delays. This measure would allow the charter schools to choose from a list of more than three independent auditors to conduct audits and provide access to auditors for the many charter schools that operate on all the islands across the State.

Your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by changing the effective date to upon its approval.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 813, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 813, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

____________________________ JUSTIN H. WOODSON Co-Chair	____________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI Chair
____________________________ AARON LING JOHANSON Co-Chair	____________________________ DRU KANUHA Co-Chair
____________________________ GREGGOR ILAGAN Co-Chair