STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1321-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: S.B. No. 2475

S.D. 2

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2475, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Create a registry for all preschools and K-12 educational institutions within the State that contains information on school employees, contractors, or volunteers for whom, as a result of an investigation, a final finding has been issued that the individual has inflicted harm on a student; and

(2) Appropriate funds to establish positions within the Department of Education to manage the registry and carry out the requirements of this measure.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Early Learning; Department of Education; Hawaiʻi Teacher Standards Board; Kamehameha Schools; Punahou School; Hawaii Association of Independent Schools; and Hawaii Council of Private Schools. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that the establishment of a harm to students registry is critically important to increasing the communication between public and private preschools and K-12 educational institutions regarding individuals who have inflicted harm to students. The registry will assist educational institutions in making informed employment decisions which will better protect Hawaii's students from habitual perpetrators.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Allowing the Department of Education to share information from the harm to students registry with the Department of Human Services;

(2) Establishing a process for a person to have their name removed from the harm to students registry;

(3) Clarifying when an institution must defend and indemnify the Department of Education from liability;

(4) Clarifying that term "institution" includes both public and private educational institutions;

(5) Requiring a reporting private school, public charter school, or early learning program or school to certify, before transmitting an employe's name and other information to the Department of Education, that the employee either waived the right to appeal or lost the appeal; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2475, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2475, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair