001[Music] good afternoon and welcome to the committee on education today is Monday March 10th 2025 it's 3:00 p.m. and the education committee is in room 229 first on our agenda this house bill 622 relating to the Department of Education this bill changes the date the due date of the Department of education's computer science legislative report from June 30 to 20 days prior to the start of each legislative regular session and this is effective 71 3000 okay to testify superintendent Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee I'm Teri Jima uh representing the Department of Education from the office of curriculum instructional design the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure and thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify
002on this measure if not members any questions yes Terry didn't we pass this bill on the Senate virsion and didn't we put the date is October I think yeah we are planning to submit it um submit the report by the end of October or sooner so that's part of our plan yeah well I'm surprising your testimony you didn't mention that because so you're okay if we put the Senate version into this Bill yes we we are planning to do that anyway thank [Music] you is there any further testifiers for House Bill 622 no further question questions members we are moving on to House Bill HD1 relating to Early Childhood educator special fund requires stien funds paid by a stien recipient under the Hawaii Early Childhood educator St stien fund program to be deposited into the
003Early Learning special fund repeals a Hawaii early childhood education educator special fund effective 71 3,000 anyone here to testify um yo AR call class from executive office on early learning hi Cher kidani Vice chair Kim and Senator Hashimoto I'm ID call across director of the executive office on early learning we are in strong support of HB 1065 and I thank the committee for hearing this bill this committee previously heard and passed out the Senate companion to this bill SB 1384 there are no substantive differences between the two measures but in their current form both vehicles contain defective effective dates we respectfully request that the committee consider amending the effective date for this housekeeping to upon approval and thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you next to testify elen Mash Early Learning board Aloha
004chair Vice chair Senator Hashimoto I'm elain yta I'm aloh from Maui and the Early Learning board stands on its testimony Mahalo thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify in this measure if not members questions um question [Music] for what are some of the reasons for the return of the stien so there's a requirement from stien recipients to complete the program and to uh give back uh after the graduation but sometimes people have uh different challenges with completing the program for different reasons family reasons or something else and um we've had a few cases um where people are not able to continue their schooling for various reasons and so we request that they pay back the funds how much sens have been repaid today have been repaid oh so we've been collecting actually
005since we came here for the Senate bill and I can get that number for you and do you have a total of how much should be rep yes we know the exact dollar amount but I can get both of those for you the total amount um it was at the last calculation it was it was less it was maybe 20 or $30,000 thank you MERS questions thank you okay okay next on the agenda House Bill 904 HD1 relating to Charter Schools repeals the requirement for the Board of Education to annually report to the legislature governor and the public on public charges schools effective 71300 good evening to testify pj4 Public Charter School commission yes in place of pej good afternoon Senator kadani chair Kim and um Senator Cano uh at no Charter School Commission Executive
006Director and we stand on our written testimony thank you thank [Music] you capson po executive director Board of Education on capson I I'm on Zoom good evening chair kidani Vice chair Kim and Senator uh I'm capson poy executive director of the board uh the board does stand on our written testimony and support and we thank the committee for hearing this measure uh we believe it eliminates duplication and Reporting while still maintaining transparency and accountability Mahalo thank you capson members questions not I have questions capson if the Board of Education doesn't do its own review of the charter school commission's annual report who is the board expecting to do the review well Senator we think that you know the charter commission already does produce a pretty um comprehensive annual report and the board actually does look
007at that when it does produce its own report um I I think maybe another way to look at it is how the board engages with the commission and exercises that oversight uh one of the ways the board is looking to do that is the board's already starting to have the commission appear before the board uh for updates and discussion uh and monitoring and think that's a way to provide some additional oversight uh which goes beyond the report I think so you uh the board doesn't have any concerns with this measure then Senator um the board is supportive um right now we do think that uh right now as it is uh the commission does do uh its report and the board uh does many of the things that are in the commission's report are also
008put in the board's report um and like like said it's uh sort of duplicating the efforts of two agencies who are basically reporting some of the same uh information thank you then um would the board then after review send a report to the legislature or could they yeah would they continue to do that uh um well Senator um I mean we we could if if that were you're ask um I think the way the bill is uh laid out is we would I think the preferred option would be that the commission submits its report and that would be uh the report uh on Charter education uh in our state with the board providing some additional oversight uh and discussion and engagement at its own board meetings so if there were no uh report back to
009the legislature from the Board of Education um how would we address any concerns or transparency concerns that the board may have uh well Senator I think um you know we are the board I think is committed to trying to engage uh with this committee especially but the legislature generally meaning uh the report is not the only way to have discussions on um important public education uh policies and matters uh throughout the state and we would hope that we could continue to engage uh either here during hearings in our Senate education committee uh at Community meetings and at other venues um and and again just we we think that there are a lot of opportunities to have public engagement public discussion um and to get some of the information and issues discussed um many of the
010issues that the board CES in its Charter report are similar to the issues that um the rest of our Public Schools meaning Department schools face as far as uh funding uh Staffing and Facilities Senator Kim has a question yes so right now capson when you folks review the report from the charter schools do you folks give any guidance or do you do anything um what do you do after you folks review their report uh thank you uh Senator I um not everyone's interested in digging into the weeds with us there so thank you for letting us kind of I don't want you to dig in the weeds but give me an idea no well yeah we we'll try and take a high level view basically what we do is we start with the commission's report
011um and the way the statute is set up it it does require reporting to be slightly different it's the same information but it has to be sort of Recon figured and actually that's where I'd say most of our time is and effort is spent okay but when you I'm not talking about the reporting I'm talking about what do you do after you review the report nothing you just tell us about it is that it you folks don't oh sorry uh Senator the the board does the biggest thing the board does is uh in its report is add some fiscal data to it um now do you do you do you give any any um feedback to the Charter Charter Commission on their report sorry uh for misunderstanding the question uh yes uh or I mean
012I should say yes in the past when when the board has believe that um feedback was necessary um in the past the board has pointed out areas of uh concern um it it's been a little while since the board has had some major concerns um and I think um you know we've all been trying to work to coordinate and align our efforts so um to basically avoid having to say those things in reports and just be able to work together uh for the benefit of our K thank you so Charter commission do you folks send your report into the ledge Yes you do you send in your report and then Bo um Boe sends in their report yes okay annually before the start of session so would it be as a compromise perhaps where when
013the Board of Education reviews the report that you would just send to the legislature we have or send back to back to the commission that the board of education has reviewed this we have no concerns at this time or we have reviewed this and we feel then you would take that and then you would submit that along with your report to the legislature cover page yeah does does that make I don't know is that does that take care the concerns that maybe we would have to make sure that it's being reviewed and I think so so maybe we can amend this to to something like that yes I'm just trying to find a way to that we don't duplicate it yet but we're assured that b the board reviewed it and if there were concerns
014that you did bring it up to them and then you would take your report and say this is the boe's report to us and we would get it and one who besides the legisl receives a uh so we send it uh to the board legislature and the uh College libraries receive a copy and other state agencies that require either a hard copy or electronic but those be the major ones thank you further questions thank you thank you thank you okay [Music] Bill 620 relating to education this establishes a state policy to promote real Literacy for eligible blind students requires the individualized education programs and and Section 504 plans of eligible blind students to include the assessment and evaluation of eligible blind students reading and writing abilities instruction of brail and provision of real instructional materials
015under certain circumstances requires the Department of Education to establish a braille literacy Resource Center to testify superintendent Alani Vice chair Kim and um members of the committee my name is Kina Gardener I'm the assistant superintendent for the office of student support services and I'm here testifying on behalf of the Department of Education um we stand on our written testimony which provides comments on this measure um the department supports the intent of this measure but is proposing amendments as outlined in our written testimony that would ensure the measures fully inclusive and accurately reflects all students who have low vision or are blind and that the language describing individualized educational plans accurately reflect um federal guidelines Additionally the department recognizes that carrying out the mandates of this measure would require resources thank you for the opportunity to
016testify thank you next to testify Katie Kim Al no move to your left behind you little bit more there's a chair right there thank you micro mic there it is Mahalo for listening to my testimony today and holding this hearing regarding the bill I stand in strong support of this bill having at one time worked uh as an independent with Department of Education as an instructor as well as an advocate with the national Federation of blind working with parents and blind children in their individualized educational plans the bill addresses directly the need to for evaluation of the students blind and low vision one of the biggest occurrences I saw is if the student had any amount of vision than large print was used and can you imagine having a stack of papers with only one
017or two letters on each paper that's would be the size of the point of the font so that the student could read it but there would be no way that anybody could keep up with their classmates or their schoolwork with that kind of large print if they had Braille and they learned it early on they could continue to learn and Excel in their school and meet some of their own personal dreams and aspirations and eventually go on to higher education and quality work work my blindness itself came when I was an adult I did learn Braille I use it but I was a print reader until I was 36 but I have seen the effects of students when they're young if they don't learn brail early I just really believe this is an important measure
018and thank you very much for listening to my concerns and my testimony Mahalo thank you Katie member questions thank you and I'm open for questions thank you Katie next to testify Marie kood thank you Marie please name hi my name is Marie cof and good afternoon chair Vice chair and committee members thank you for hearing me I'm here in strong support of HB 620 as well um I stand on my written testimony and I I kind of wanted to add a little bit of what Katie was saying and I I think we've we've talked about this so 25 years ago in 2000 I was a part of uh P getting the ra literacy Act passed in New York state and our work is never done right we always need to to try to improve to
019get better um I think one of the things about the resistance in teaching bra is the idea or the prevailing idea that Braille is difficult but Braille is just like any other skill right so like how many people in this room right now and this is stupid because I'm not going to be able to see your head nding or your hands raising but how many people in this in this room know their way around a keyboard see I took I took typing in probably four or five raises their hand okay thank you all right so in ninth grade I took typing all right just a you know it was an itive that I I chose to take and this was the protocol you sat up straight they were stricter back then right you sat up
020straight you put your hands on your home row keys and you had to memorize the home row keys right okay a s DF J K LS and then you had to memorize the corresponding letters that connected to that finger and then Mr NYL in the front of my ninth grade class would turn on the record player while we had to stare straight ahead to the Blackboard and we would do drills okay what does this have to do with inadvertently Mr Nyon taught an entire class of cited kids how to type blind I didn't know it at the time right and I'm telling you what I I challenge any of you for a duel on a keyboard I am fast okay and I'm fast because in ninth grade I took one class and if you think
021about it right that was just a tactile skill it was literally taking the language and turning it into my fingertips that's what Braille can do for our kids right and there's something else just a little quick pet peeve that Mr Nyon did he didn't think we needed to learn the numbers and I curse him every time I have to type a number and I said to my daughter why why would he do that and he's like oh that's because he can just look and Peck and it's like oh so cheat right so you know but but when it comes to typing I'm really fast in college I was the one that transcribed all the ethnographies because I was the fastest typer right we did the interviews and the counseling sessions and I typed them all
022into a report bra can do this for our kids if one ninth grade class can teach me keep me proficient the rest of my life right and I'm so glad I have that skill now because it helps me with the technology and the keyboards if I can learn that in one class in nth grade imagine what we can do for these kids earlier on if we get the proper assessment if we get the instruction that they need and not just if they're completely blind if you have any Vision any Vision at all that's great use the tactile modality I talked about that last time but also add the bra add that skill so they can become proficient I can't unlearn typing it's like you can't not ride a bike right I can't unlearn typing those
023kids will not be able to unlearn brow and we will give them more than just a typing class we'll give them literacy that's going to give them the Independence that they need to be productive members of society so thank you so much for letting me bevel I appreciate you hearing my testimony thank you Katie memb questions a so Maria you forgot to tell them how we would get timed and we have to type so many words in a right exactly even more so yeah you would you would you would get time and you you would you so many words so without mistakes and and if you made mistakes you got docked for those right and if you looked down and I always like my my my cited counterparts they'd be like and I'd be like
024what does that do like I could never do it but yeah you the sad thing is when my son was going to school they didn't teach him the keybard they didn't teach him how to type I was they don't teach you how to type so you know he's the one figure of course he can he can use his thumbs to do to do all the thing but they didn't teach him how to the type for and I'm like you I to this day I can type without looking down yeah except the number except the numers the numbers are the hard one we're one of those looking pokes we're we're real you know we're the real deal so thank you so much yeah no problem thank you for hearing me thank you Katie questions if not
025I'm sorry um no thank you next to testify Marie K oh I'm sorry that was Marie oh sorry I missed one okay Virgil stinet steinet president nfb Hawaii is she here not here she's in support an huchi Deputy attorney general you're not you're you're not an I'm Rand I just needed to mention that for our uh people that are not cited your voice would throw them off I think they'd figure it out right away though you can't look down at your words no Shani sh Kim members of the committee Randall wat per Attorney General comments on this bill as outliner written testimony uh the department offer asked uh recommends one Amendment to the bill uh the new section 302 a CB on page five lines 1 through six of the bill states that uh every
026uh individualized education program or Section 504 plan for edible eligible blind student shall include an assessment of a students reability um under federal law eligible student assessments are determined by the IEP team um and if you mandate them through this law it uh could be contrary to that federal law so we recommend that that section be removed which section 302 a AC subsection B on page five mines 1 through six thank you for to and bail for questions members questions thank you R next to testify Donald Sakamoto National Federation of the blind of Randle here yes uh good afternoon chair Vice chair and members of the committee uh Donald Sako as a blind individual and a member of our national Federation of bind in full support of the bill as is with no changes if
027possible um my testimony I did write in uh my testimony about a well-known attorney F Hawaii and a representative of the state legislature 48 District Terence Tom now he learned how to read bill and became a successful attorney uh politician and we need more of these people in our schools to learn brao so they can be elect terance and have the goal to be uh famous or even uh be maybe president of the United States but this is why I support the bill because I didn't have BR when I was young I had to do with large print like some tesp said uh if I had that challenge to do it I would be much more perfected in brail unfortunately I learned it at whole Pono state agency for the blind at a later age
028when I was in my late 40s uh difficult uh when you have diabetes and it's hard to feel the uh the print real but I I fully support because the kids are Kies are like sponges so they learn a lot at the time and they can enhance their education after they leave uh Public School and go on to college or wherever they want to do in their life thank you for allowing me to testify Al thank you members questions if not and we also have comments and support from four other individuals James gashel uh yes thank you uh Madam chair Vice chair Kim and members uh I'm James gashel legislative chair for the national Federation of the blind of Hawaii um let me just say it's uh good to testify on a bill where everybody
029supports it um and I want to suggest a couple of things of of a more maybe technical nature um when the session started there were two bills on braal literacy one which uh chair Donnie introduced as SB 530 and one which chair Woodson introduced as HB 620 um this committee passed the Senate Bill back on February 7 with an sd1 and the sd1 was the amendment suggested by the Attorney General um the bill that's Advanced of course is the house bill and that's why you have that one here today um the most straightforward way to actually address all the various amendments that the department has put into its testimony and the Attorney General mentioned would be to substitute the text of sb53 sd1 and and I I you can ask them but I know the
030department supports that version of this bill National Federation of the blind of Hawaii supports that version of this bill I assume the Attorney General would since that bill adopted the Attorney General's Amendment at that time and I think it would be I can say more with more confidence that that would be the most workable version of this bill to adopt either one of them would be fine but with more confidence I would recommend SB sd1 as a substitute for the text that you have in HB 620 and Mahalo for hearing this bill and for hearing my testimony thank you I believe that is going to be the intent of this committee thank you anyone else here wishing to testify this measure if not members questions thank you that yeah that concludes the the bills that
031we have to hear and we are going to recess for decision making reconvening the committee on education this is Monday March 10th 3:00 p.m. agenda we are looking at decision making and for House Bill 622 HD1 we are going to uh replace this bill with the language and Senate version Senate Bill sd1 and basically it defects the date to October of each year rep the reporting date yes okay uh Senate Bill I'm sorry House Bill 622 HD1 passed with amendments uh chair corrector I five five eyes recommended recommendations is adopted thank you moving on to House Bill 1055 HD1 relating to Early Childhood educator special fund recommendation of chair is to pass with amendments making it effective upon its approval chair Vol I any members voting no any members voting with reservations here none all
032five members present recommendations adopted thank you moving on House Bill 904 HD1 this is relating to Charter Schools recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments uh the amendments are to retain statutory language requiring an annual board report changing reference from board to commission as appropriate um and third inserting language requiring the board to review and approve the commission's report before submission to the legislature and governor and public okay with that hille 9904 HD1 passed with amendments any members voting no any members voting with reservations hearing n all five members voting I recommendations adopted thank you and moving on to our final bill House Bill 620 HD1 related relating to education the recommendation is to pass with amendments and we're deleting its contents and inserting the contents of Senate bill 530 sd1 which is
033a senate version of this bill and it encompasses stakeholders feedback and also allows doe to fully Implement on the intent of this bill members questions the recommendation Senate Bill 620 sorry House Bill 6 20 ht1 pass with amendments any member voting no any members voting with Rec with reservations hearing none five members all voting I recommendations adopted I just want to say that I got to serve with um representative Tom his office was right next door to me he carried his Braille machine everywhere he went and you could always hear him on his Braille machine yes and he was always with his Braille and I was always impressed that he he could do that um so yeah so I that this is a really good bill Madam chair so thank you thank you that's the
034end of our agenda thank you this committee is a journey