And if it should be then I think that's a bigger conversation that because that is a complete change from what public education's mandate have been and it's grown with no child left behind. But again, many of these growths are because our state have chosen to increase some of these types of services to the point now that we want to do a complete community school type thing that includes the families as well, which goes over and beyond what was intended for for public education, which started from K through 12 and now seems to be going from pre preK to three years old. I mean, we keep making the window larger, which I'm not saying is bad, but again, the intent and the amount of funding for that certainly has to be taken into consideration because you still have the department of education and everything else um there and humans department of human services that are supposed to be addressing many of these issues, right, in the nonprofits.
What do we need to do to to continue to work on that?" >> And I appreciate that. Thank you. I just want to be mindful that yes, all voices do matter, right? And the dual program is or excuse me, dual languages absolutely across our district. However, our marginalized students are our most vulnerable. And if you look at the numbers right now, it shows that. So, while yes, it is all our students that deserve equity, the reality is, excuse me, the voices that sit up here also matter to ensure that we are capturing those people that don't have the voices, whether to your point, Spanish, Russian, all the different languages. So to be fair, we have to make sure we're not forgetting our most marginalized vulnerable students in district 308. So and and uh Miss Robinson just to kind of combine your two questions going back to character strong which is that K curriculum uh for that also automatically translates into other language.
So, that's something to really think about as we go forward. um because I think it's a major it's a major shift um that is being asked for and the cost is huge >> you know and do we sacrifice the academics portion to to to add that on and that's the other area because it might not happen right now but that's possibly the unintended consequences as we move forward any other questions members if not thank you thank Okay, we're on House Bill 1891. This requires Department of Education to implement dyslexia sensitive linguist linguistically appropriate universal screenings and evidence-based interventions. Offer professional development on structured literacy and evidence-based interventions and support pre-teacher programs and training candidates and structure literacy programs. Okay, that was a mouthful there. DOE. >> Good afternoon, Chair Kim, Vice Chair Kedani, members of the committee. I'm Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education. The department provided comments on this bill, highlighting um its existing rollout of our K3 screeners and structured literacy training while requesting amendments in our um comments to clarify that these screeners identify general reading risk rather than diagnosing dyslexia and specifically to exempt Hawaiian medium kauni schools from the English ccentric reading requirements.
So when they have a handout or they have an activity, it automatically can translate it into multiple languages because we talk about being safe, being vulnerable, being, you know, allowed to speak their peace. We want that and we don't want any barriers. So we made sure we used a program that had that um as well as visuals for some of our uh students that are in the special needs program. So we're trying to get we're trying to touch all the kids to get them all involved and welcome and ready to participate especially incl which you kind of brought up earlier >> just for the public get for the record can you tell us how many languages you are dealing with across the district I know it's a high number >> we have almost 90 >> 90 y thanks >> okay unless there's any other questions Right, we'll move to Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you, D. Uh, Dry Bart Vitals Vitalis. I always have trouble with your last name. I don't know why. >> Hello, chairs, vice chair, committee members. My name is Chase over. I'm with the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities here for Danger told us. Yeah. >> Um, the the council will stand on our testimony. I just want to highlight that, you know, we always appreciate screeners, especially in early intervention, especially with ID folks. this is a way that you may possibly catch um an intellectual disability when they have learning challenges. There's often cross diagnosises as well. Uh I also just wanted to highlight that, you know, we always appreciate that once they're identified or there's a diagnosis. They get evidence-based uh interventions and supports. I will also note that, you know, I have dyslexia. I went I was born and raised here.
>> Thank you for taking your time. Next on the agenda is uh 5.3 grants presentation. >> Thank you, Mr. President. uh as part of the uh transparency and information sharing with the public. We uh we strive to have uh our main departments do a presentation in public so the board as well as uh the public will have a better sense of the different functions that that we perform in the district and they will have an opportunity to ask question just get a better insight about some of the key work that is happening here. So, as part of that process, we've asked the director of grant to uh to do a a short presentation about grants in the district. I'm going to introduce Miss Julie Frankino. >> Is that working? >> Hi, I'm Julie Frankino. I'm the director of grants. Thank you. Uh Raphael. Um tonight I want to talk to you briefly about grants.
I went to our public school system. They didn't even catch that I couldn't read until fifth grade. Uh I didn't catch that I had dyslexia until I was going to grad school. Uh, and I went to public school and then I had to go to assets for a long time and only thanks to assets was I able to actually learn to read and catch up academically and do what I do now. So, I appreciate screeners like this. >> Thank you, Susan Roco on Zoom. >> Hi, uh, chair, vice chair, this is Susan Roco representing the special education advisory. >> Can you speak up a little bit, please? Sorry. Um, is this better? a little bit better. >> The Special Education Advisory Council has long supported this bill. It is essential to help the kids that have already been identified as having dyslexia uh or having a specific learning disability, 90% of whom also have dyslexia, but also catching kids who would fall into the special education arena if they are not given the support they need.
It's a tough tough act to follow. We've had some really deep stuff tonight. Um I'm just going to provide some background information about grants in general and then I'm going to share some uh recent information about grants here in SD 308. Uh whenever I give a presentation like this, I like to start out with uh a brief explanation about what grants are because there are a lot of common misconceptions about grants. For example, many people think the government gives grants out to individuals. While that's technically true, it's extremely rare. For example, as of last week, uh grants.gov, which is the federal government website for grants, had over 900 grants, open grants listed. nine of them allowed individual applicants. So less than 1% which is pretty typical. Another misconception is that grants are just money that you are given that there's not um much more to it that you're given money and then you can do thing what you would like with them with it.
So, we appreciate the training in the bill. We appreciate the screening. We're all for it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Susan. Uh PK, >> it's not here. >> Okay. Here. Okay. Dyslexia Advocacy Club testifying for Lejar Dan. Do we have a representative from them? Okay. >> Aloha. I'm Serena Marsen and I'm the lucky teacher of the Literacy Dyslexia Advocacy Academy and we just have a few students here who would like to speak to you in support of this bill. So, I'm just going to go ahead and send them in. >> Okay, can you just have them queued up, please? >> Hello Okay, >> please have a seat. Please tell us your name and then you can >> I'm Evelyn. >> Thank you, Evelyn. Okay, go ahead, Leela. >> Aloha. Aloha, chair, vice chair, and members of the Senate Committee on Education. My name is Mila Richardson, and I'm a third grade student in Hawaii.
But in most cases grants come with contractually binding grant agreements that include many requirements and restrictions that must be monitored throughout the life of the grant. So this is because grants really are funded awards to support specific projects or activities. They are project plans. Grtors provide grants because there are there are goals those grtors want to achieve that they can't achieve on their own. So for example, we receive idea funds because Congress has agreed that uh children in special education deserve equitable education throughout the country, but they're not going to train a cadre of teachers and send teachers out to all the districts. So they use the mechanism of a grant instead to fund that work. Um, I want to talk a little bit about mentioned that grants have contract terms. I want to talk a little bit about what those typically are. Um, grants have timelines.
Right now, Hawaii is the only state in the country without laws to support dyslexic learners. But the good news is that reading problems are not a mystery. We already know how to help kids learn to read. >> Hi, I'm Ella Ka. We just need to identify students only and teach them effectively. HB1891 helps helps Hawaii do exactly that. Please pass HB1891 so every child in Hawaii can learn to read and believe in themsel. >> Thank you for your support. Mahalo. Thank you. Good job. Okay, next two. Really good job. Come on. And if you want to bring the mic closer to you, you can. Yes. Good job. >> Go ahead. >> Aloha, chair, vice chairs, and members of the committee. My name is M Marsden. I'm a fifth grade student and a dyslexic learner. When I was learning to read, it was hard for me.
There's those are called a period of performance. So, when we get a grant, oops, we have a time that we can spend the money. It's a start date and an end date. So there's a constant monitoring of where are we with in relation to the period of performance of the grant. Do we how much time do we have left to achieve the the deliverables that we've promised and to spend the money. Um we always have restrictions on things like spending. There are allowable costs and unallowable costs. So certain things that you may spend money on and certain things that you cannot. For example, supplanting is a very big issue with me most grants. Grants are meant to supplement, not supplant, which means that you can't replace something that you're already doing. You can't use grant funds to replace that money. So, if you've spent money, you know, say local funds on something in the past, you can't replace that with grant funds just because it's convenient.
Sometimes I felt confused and sometimes I felt like I wasn't smart. But I am smart. I just need to be taught in ways that my brain understood. Because I got help early. I can read. In fact, I can hardly put down my Kindle. But not all kids get the same help. Some kids struggle. Some kids start feeling sad and some even stop liking school. And I learned that when kids don't learn to read, it can affect their whole lives. Some even get into trouble later and end up in prison because school didn't feel like a place where they could learn and succeed. This is called the schoolto prison pipeline. That's not fair and it doesn't have to happen. HB1 1891 can identify kids like me and provide targeted support that they need. Please help Kiki learn to read, succeed, believe in themselves, and write their own future.
You have to use that grant to do something new and extra. Um, grants have restrictions in terms of like what populations you can serve. For example, like our title three funds th that those are exclusively for our multilingual learners. Our idea funds are for our special education students. Um, allowable activities. Some it's a common thing that grants might not allow for example uh capital purchases or marketing materials, things of that nature. But every grant is different. So every grant requires an analysis of what are the specific requirements of that grant. Excuse me. Um grants also have purchasing requirements that go along with that. Uh most have competitive procurement requirements. So that any purchases over a certain threshold have to have competitive procurement either uh multiple quotes from vendors or above the capital threshold. They have to go to bid. Um and that's kind of without exception when it's grant money.
Mahalo for listening to my voice. >> Thank you. Good job. >> Okay, you want to pull the mic? Good. >> Aloha committee. My name is Coco Bear and I'm dyslexic because we found out two years ago I'm getting lots of help from school and family. I'm lucky, but I wonder what would happen if I wasn't lucky. And every day at school for me felt too hard to handle. I think I would leave school as soon as I could and my problems would become Hawaii's problems. Please help every dyslexic kid be the lucky one. Vote yes on HB1891. Thank you. Aloha chair, vice chair, and members of the Senate Committee on Education. My name is Emily and I'm a third grade student in Hawaii. Research shows that one in five students have dyslexia. Re that means that in almost every classroom there are dyslexic learners that struggle.
Uh grants in the rare cases when they do allow capital purchases often you they require preapproval. So if we had a grant that allowed capital, every single capital item usually needs to be approved by the grtor first. And if there's a change in that, that change must be approved before any of those activities take place or before any of those purchases occur. All the expenditures have to be documented and all those documentation or all those expenditures have to meet uh general accounting accepted accounting standards. So there's a lot of um fine detail work in in ensuring that all of our records meet the standards that are required to make meet those grant requirements. In addition to all of the fiscal but mostly what I've been talking about is the fiscal requirements. Grants always also have expected outcomes. So when we say we will do particular activities for example um maybe we say that we will take a certain number of students to trips to higher education facilities or certain number of teachers will be trained on a new methodology.
But Hawaii is the only state without laws that support dyslexic learners. >> Hi, I'm Henry. HB1891 will help identify students earlier and make sure they get the support they need. Please support HB1891 so every student in Hawaii has the chance to become a strong reader. Mahalo. >> Thank you. I I I want I want you students who have testified to know that you've probably done a better job than some of the adults who've come to testify. So, thank you very much for your good presentation. Next, >> you folks are well prepared and well spoken. So, >> aloha chair, vice chair, and members of the Senate Committee on Education. My name is Nuni and I'm a third grade student in Hawaii. When students cannot read and do not understand why, they may begin to think they are not smart. But that is not true. Many students just need to be taught differently.
We need to also track and report those outcomes just like we do with the types of outcomes we were talking about with students and things earlier with respect to the strategic plan. Um, and all of these things must be reported on to the grantor and the timing and the structure of those reports varies by grant as well. So where do we get most of our grants? Well, in here in US we go 308. We get most of our funding from formulaf funded grants and most of those are federal grants such as those listed on the slide here. Um so those would be like title one, two, three, four, IDEA, Perkins. Um those are our big formulaf funded grants. We may also apply apply for competitive discretionary federal grants when we are eligible and when the grant parameters fit the needs and planned activities of the district.
HB1 1891 helps schools identify students earlier and provide them with support they need before their confidence is lost. Please support HB1891 so that every student in Hawaii can feel proud, capable, and confident in school. Mahalo. >> Wow, you didn't even have to read. >> Okay, next. >> I know. Good job. Right. >> Alo, aloha, chair, vice chair, and members of the Senate Committee of Education. Aloha. My name is Noah and I'm a third grade student in Hawaii. Students today are the future of Hawaii. When students learn to read well, they can grow up to become teachers, doctors, scientists, and leaders in our communities. But when students struggle to read and do not receive help, it can affect affect their future opportunities. HB1 1891 helps make sure all students get the support they need to become strong readers. Please support HB1891 for the future of Hawaii's cake.
We haven't done that a lot in the past, but that is something that we're working on doing more. Uh and one example that I've given here of a competitive discretionary grant is the NEA grants for arts projects. It's a highly competitive grant open to all sorts of organizations not just schools throughout the country and it funds a wide range of arts related activities and costs for selected projects that meet the steep requirements of that grant. Just like federal grants, state grants could either be formulafunded or competitive. And I've listed some examples here with which you're probably already familiar. Another example is CTEI, which is a state portion of our career and tech technical education grant. Um, some local granted go local government grant examples. We don't have a lot of those around here. There are some um 708 boards are common in some areas. Those are usually through townships uh and those fund mental health initiatives.