EDU-PSM, EDU-HHS, EDU Public Hearings 02-07-2025

001good afternoon welcome to the committee on education and and Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs this Joint Committee hearing is to schedule Senate Bill 422 relating to education this bill authorizes the Department of Education to award a high school diploma to qualified persons who did not receive a high school diploma as a result of compulsory or voluntary induction into the Armed Services of the United States or whose high school education was interrupted due to wartime practices during World War II the Korean war or the Vietnam War first to testify superintendent Kashi chair kidani Vice chair Kim chair elepante Kashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure um as chair shared at 101 session La of ha 2007 previously authorized the

002department to issue the Kono diploma to World War II Korean War and Vietnam War veterans as well as individuals whose schooling was interrupted due to the military service or internment which set sunset in 2020 the department stands on it written testimony support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure we do have several members of the community on Zoom all in support 1 two three four five six of them in support the recess reconvening the committee on education for a 3:00 agenda on Senate Bill 422 um for this measure the committee on education is recommending that we pass um did we have amendments pass as is members questions no thank you okay recommendation is to pass SB 422 as is

003uh the chair votes I Vice chair votes I Senator Hashimoto is excused K hi Senator the court is excused uh with the members present oh there she is uh four members present AFF thank you Senator thank you madam chair uh same recommendation for the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs for SB 422 to pass unamended chair votes I Vice chair W for the oh I don't have sheets [Music] members we're about to vote on Senate Bill 422 chair's recommendations to pass this measure on amended chair lante I I vote Yes Senator pag hi Senator rhs excuse Senator Dort I chair your recommendation is adopted thank you thank you [Music] adjourn convening this Joint Committee hearing on the committee on education committee on health and Human Services today is Friday February 7th this is a

00430:5 p.m. agenda and we are in room 229 in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the Committees will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Monday February 10th 2025 at 3:00 p.m. in this conference room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website I'd like to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to 1 minute per testifier per bill for people participating remotely please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and

005efficient matter this joint agenda with health and human Services has two measures first item is Senate bill 530 relating to brille literacy establishes brille literacy as a policy of the state requires literacy assessments for eligible low vision and blind students to include Braille instructions and the use of Braille authorizes the Department of Education to adopt administrative rules establishes the Braille literacy Resource Center appropriates funds and to testify superintendent good afternoon Sher kidani Vice chair Kim and chair San buen of Ventura I'm Heidi Armstrong Department of Education and the department stands on its written testimony in support thank you thank you next to testify Department of Human Services Yani director apologies hohi oh good afternoon chairs oh chair oh go right in this is Senate Bill 5:30 and we are waiting for the testimony of director

006Ryan yman department of human servic good afternoon Gavin a testifying on behalf of director Ryman uh we appreciate the of this measure we stand on our written testimony as expands the educational and employment opportunities for students who are blind and low vision happy to answer any questions thank you and you the department is in support next to testify Marie c c h in person chair is right to your right sorry okay we've been together six months so we're still working I've had a dog for 12 years at perfectly understand down afternoon chair Vice chair and committee members thank you for hearing me today my name is Marie C hope and I am in support of SD 530 um I stand on my written testimony but I just wanted to add a couple things even though

007we have a minute um I am a product of not having good measures in place I um I'm so I was diagnosed with retinitis Pigmentosa at an early age around 7 um because they found that my brother had the same disorder um prognosis Is Blindness and by 24 I lost my vision now the problem is I they knew I was going blind and I was having Vision difficulties but Braille wasn't afforded to me and because brail wasn't afforded to me that left me at the age of 24 really IL equipped so I struggled throughout life throughout College I became a professor but during those times the the difficulties in the barriers that I had to face because I didn't have an alternative way of reading I was stuck with listening to audio books but audio

008books they don't cut it right they leave gaps in your education it's very difficult to pull a room in together to figure out what's going on I can't look down at a speech I can't you know get cues from what's in front of me and it caused so many headaches I used markers through college writing off my paper um it's just it's a tough road and I don't want any kid to go through that um when we use braille and we use an alternative technique for the represent representation of our language I mean when you try to spell something right now if I gave you a word a simple word like cat you see it in your mind as a blind person we don't have that visual representation so spelling looks sloppy um you struggle

009with trying to spell the simplest words the tacal representation of our language provides our ability to form the structure of our language which then leads to literacy and that literacy leads to empowerment and Independence and that's what we want we want our kids to be independent we want them to feel empowered and not like I did always kind of falling behind not being able to keep up with my sighted counterparts not being able to keep up with my blind counterparts because my blind counterparts were reading proficient Braille my cited counterparts were reading proficient um written language and I was stuck in the middle trying to figure out what was and what wasn't and and how I was going to get ahead so I I I know I did that really fast and I because we

010have a minute and I don't I don't want to uh bore people but let me tell you this bill isn't for me the system already failed me but for our kids now if we can get a good assessment right if we can get Braille instruction at the right time early underneath the fingertips of our kids and we can get a bra Resource Center where they can actually get the materials that they need they will become more proficient and they won't struggle like I did or end up like my brother who when he went blind was a bank manager lost his job and he's been on Social Security disability for the duration that's just not a good outcome so I really I thank you for listening to me um and I ask that we push this

011push this thing forward because is we need to help our kids again it's not going to help me but it is going to help the kids today and it's going to help the kids of our future thank you very much for testimon Marie why don't you stay there and let me see if any of our members have questions for you sure sure members any questions I'd like to know um how long did it take you to train your dog oh so I just got him in May and so I didn't train him obviously he was um selectively bred uh they I got him at Dogs Inc in Bradon Florida and so it's a two-year process of a host home raising him and then he's trained throughout those years when it's ready and then he goes

012through a rigorous six-month program and then I go for a month I meet him and then we train for another month and now we have mango who usually finds my chair so yeah mango great name so Marie do you have um a list of May instructional materials that you would recommend to the department you mean for Braille resources so the best person that could take that would be James Gastel of the nfb I know for me um like I was a psychology Professor so like when it comes to Braille literacy I learned Braille later on um so I wouldn't be able to like tell you what I I don't have a curriculum or any material that I would know I would but James gashel could definitely feel that thank you no National Federation of the

013blind yes any questions members thank you very much for thank you thank you for hearing me may go stand my [Music] dog okay if there are no and we have oh two four six eight others that provided um testimony in support we have is Attorney General on Zoom oh you're here come forward please good afternoon cheers kidani and sanura members um and herichi from the Department of the Attorney General we um just have some suggested comments um and suggested revisions I just say in our testimony um when we read the bill what we wanted to note was that mandating yearly Assessments in certain areas can be subject to challenge on grounds that is contrary to federal law um really the the need for new assessments and evaluations that's determined by an IEP team on an

014annual basis and is based on each student's individualized Pro um progress so um just putting forth in statute that certain assessments will be done every year may not be appropriate for certain students and so for that reason we've put some suggested revisions in our testimony to address um subsections B and E of the bill and I'm available for questions thank you let me ask the members if they have questions thank you and we have another testifier James gashel on zoom on Zoom James uh yes James gashel here um National Federation of the blind mainly I want toh stand on our re written testimony and say a bunch of thank yous first of all to you uh Madame chair and to U chair San boaventura for being in support of this bill um and appreciate the

015sponsorship of this bill uh to the department for its support of this bill and if I started naming names I don't know if it's advisable but specifically to miss jamaa green and Haruka Hopper from the Department who work in the special needs section J's the administrator of that section for working with us in the development of the um Provisions uh that you've now introduced as uh SP um 530 we're fully in support of this bill and that also includes um supporting the Amendments offered by Miss Lopez uh for the attorney general and Mahalo for um having this hearing thank you James we did also have uh written testimony and support from the Hawaii disability rights Center thank you anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure right moving on to Senate Bill 532 [Music]

016relating to the Department of Education allow Schools staff and agents trained by a licensed clinici to volunteer to administer medication to students at Department of Education Public Schools under searching conditions C clarifies who may prescribe medication to be administered to students in schools to testify superintendent please good good afternoon chair kidani Vice chair Kim chair s sanov Ventura and members of the Committees I'm Heidi Armstrong Department of Education and we stand on our written testimony in support thank you thank you Heidi Department of Health I don't have a name here good afternoon chairs Vice chair members of the committee Dr Diana Felton from the Department of Health uh we stand on our written testimony support thank you and Department of Health also I don't have a name someone here no one here from Department of

017Health supposedly the testimony was in support anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure Attorney General's office good afternoon chairs Vice chair members and herichi from the Department of the Attorney General um the bill uses the term license clinician um but we wanted to know that that's not a defined term in chapter 302a however the term Healthcare professional is defined under 302 A- 853 subsection B so we have suggested um an amendment in our in the testimony to address that or make that clarification thank you questions thank you also we have Leo kadia conton Hawaii Academy of physician assistance and support on Zoom yes good afternoon chair kadan can you hear me okay yes uh good afternoon um chair kadani s Ventura Vice chairs of committee members I'm representing the Hawaii Academy of physician

018assistants or Pas we stand in our written testimony to support this bill but request the inclusion of Pas such that PAs will be recognized as providers pursuant to chapter 453 who can prescribe medications that can be administered in schools in a state with critical Healthcare Workforce shortages it's vital that legislation that's intended to ensure access to medications for students who rely on timely administration of certain medications does not result in creating barriers for patients by limiting their preference for access to all licensed health providers who may prescribe medication they need Mahala for the opportunity to provide this testimony thank you very much members questions thank you that's all the names I have is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure anyone on Zoom thank you ch have a question question question of

019whom question I have a question for Department of Education thank you Department of Education thank you for being with us Heidi um what are the requirements for a health school health assistant now a school health aid aid I'm going to call up Ben kolinsky who works in our school um health section who can give you all of those details thank you Ben members of the committee Ben kinsky I'm pediatric nurse practitioner with YK and consultant to the Department of Education our uh school health assistants um as a starting uh job requirement uh is a high school diploma first aid and CPR uh certification and those have to be maintained with annual recertification and then there's orientation and training um on the job there are there are two years of experience um both uh professional one-year

020experience and one year of specialized experience that are part of the job description uh qualifications specialized experience in the medical field or specialized experience in education it's it's broadly defined and um it it allows uh the uh application of activities are uh working with children so not exclusively Health uh related but that would qualify as well okay uh and this could be for either one of you maybe you hadidi do you believe that something like this would kind of overwhelm the responsibilities of the current teachers that we have no because it would be people who volunteer to get trained to administer a certain prescribed medication it's very helpful um often times when there are field trips if a child needs a certain medication at a certain time of day um there needs to be somebody

021there to administer that medication and if the health aid accompanies the child on the trip that leaves the school health office um vacant so um it would be on a voluntary basis um they would whoever volunteers would be properly trained and would willingly um step into that role great and then the parent would be informed absolutely thank you no questions thank you chair thank you so Heidi what does what is the de protocol now um um to administer medication if I'll give for the field trip well right now the Sha the school health aid is authorized to administer certain prescribed medication with proper documentation paperwork and approvals um there are issues um on I'll give the example again of off-campus events where a child needs the medication um administered at a certain time so the

022school may send um the school health aid um we may borrow a a Hawaii cakey nurse from another school to attend on that field trip because we um want to ensure that the T child can attend the field trip just like any other child so it is scrambling for personnel who can accompany the child but that that is our goal and that is our um our expectation so in other words if you have no one there the child cannot attend no the child must attend so we we must find somebody to attend so you've always been able to find some um I I don't have data on that I can speak as a principal I'm former principal we always ensured that there're was somebody to attend because the child has the right to go on

023that field trip and but what is the protocol now this bill requires that um they they be trained by a licensed um clinician right and we have our Hawaii kakei nurses um who could who could train um some other Ro groups who could train might be just generally in practice nurses train school health assistance in clinical activities and especially for medication administration whether that's a Department of Health nurses uh H Ki nurses other contractors that has been the our our standard and um based on the current statute those are the requirements we follow so there's are not a specified requirement for training that's just best practice for us already thank you you chair no questions no questions question thank you and we have qu okay you want to go on this now then yeah going

024to take the V on this recess Services we are in decision making um on Senate bill 530 relating to brille literacy which establishes is Braille literacy as a policy of the state requires literacy assessments for eligible low vision and blind students to include Braille instruction and the use of brille authorizes the Department of Education to adopt administrative rules establishes the Braille lit resource center and appropriates funds um we are passing with amendments and defecting the date to July 2050 and including the testimony of the Attorney General members questions Yeah question so what what is the for this we have any idea what it might be um I know you're going to blank it out yeah we're going to blank it out I I don't know if we had an a figure or not and um

025yeah and we will add that amount in the committee report is that just for one year will have to thank you okay um for the committee on education recommendation is Senate bill 530 pass with amendments uh the chair votes I Vice chair votes I Senator Hashimoto I Senator K Senator the court I five eyes recommendations adopted thank you for HHS same recommendation to pass with amendments um chair votes I um Senator k for Senator artino please take the vote uh chair vots I Vice chair aino is excused senator Asimo hi K goes I Senator flla excuse recommendation adopted five for Senate Bill 532 relating to the Department of Education which allows School staff and agents trained by a liced Clin who volunteer to administer medication to students at Department of Education Public Schools under searching

026conditions CL clarifies who may prescribe medication to be administered to students in schools um members questions I'll pass with amendments I'm sorry okay so the amendments were to replace the term licensed clinician on page two line 13 bill with health care professional and defecting the date to July 1 20150 recommendation is to bend Senate Bill 532 with amendments chair votes I chair votes I Vice chair votes no eyes adopted okay for Health and Human Services same recommendation um acting VI chair for the vote uh members passing with amendments with three members present any reservations or opposition seeing none recommendation adopted thank you the Jour this Joint Committee hearing call to order the committee on education hearing this is Friday February 7th 2025 this is a 308 PM agenda and we are in room 229 starting

027with Senate Bill 421 relating to literacy requires the Department of Education to administer a general dyslexia screening to all students in kindergarten through grade three Rees the doe to continue to administer the general English language arts Universal screening for students in kindergarten through grade n requires the Department of Education to collaborate with teacher training programs to ensure prospective candidates are trained on literacy instruction including evidence-based intervention to support all students my okay thank you to testify de superintendent Heidi good afternoon Cher kidani Vice chair Kim members of the committee Heidi Armstrong Department of Education we stand on our written testimony and support of this measure we do recommend replacing the text of s421 with the text of sb11 10001 in its entire as sb1001 more accurately reflects the Department's ongoing collaboration with the literacy workg

028groups and aligns closely with the legislative intent thank you next to testify PJ foyer Hawaii state public charge School permission good afternoon chair Vice chair committee members at no executive director of the Hawaii public charter school commission and we support the intent of SP 421 and stand as on aring comments thank you thank you Ed next to testify Erica nakanishi Stannis advocacy director Hawaii kids can hello chair kidani Vice chair Kim members of the committee we stand in support of our written testimony um in support of this measure thank you thank you next to testify D this why State Council on developmental disabilities Aloha chair committee members my name is Chase L I'm with the Hawaii state Council on development of disabilities uh for D boldis we're going to stand on our written testimony and

029support but I just wanted to offer I was born and raised here I also have have severe dyslexia and I went to public school here as well and this wasn't diagnosed for me until I was 25 um I went through all of my schooling not knowing thinking I was just incredibly lazy uh and then only to find out that I had it later uh and our Public Schools didn't catch it didn't know so we just wanted to add that thank you so much congratulations with graduating sure Lu um we have number of supporters of this bill but none are here to testify is that correct or are they on Zoom doesn't Okay are there any other persons wishing to testify on this meion welcome former Governor are you here just to democracy in action in

030as much as it's disappearing in Washington I'm sorry I let you speak did you get L just supposed to be at the University thank you members questions of Dey cost to run this program a year and it's going to run to is it so this is just for this year 7 so we're estimating 700 $50,000 um per year yes thank you at some point mam chair I would not at this juncture but at some juncture be good to get a global view of what are all the things we're asking for the doe to do in bills and what that cost might be overall because when you look at it P me at me is very meritoriously ours and we certainly want to do all of this but at the end of the day we should

031get a googal picture as to what are all the programs and assessments and so forth that we're asking the doe to compile to do and what that cost might be just to follow up on what I sh is saying is that I think in all the years that I've been here not a year goes by that we don't include something else for the de to do at at a cost and um I just appreciate the work that you guys do do for our students we are graduates of public school oh Goss and my grandchildren my children all to public school so very much appreciate the hard work of the doe and the teachers thank you for hearing with us um Heidi I had a question so what is a screener screening for is this the

032specifically looking for dyslexia or other also no it it's looking for um signs of skilled deficits that a student might have those skill deficits might give information to um promote further screening by a licensed um professional such as a clinical psychologist but a screener it it the dyslexia sensitive screener is a screening tool it's not a diagnostic tool so it's to identif ify risks and really Define what those risks are in order to be diagnosed with dislexia a detailed assessment diagnostic assessment by a trained professional must be conducted so this screener would give the um give information on the children whether they um on um their capacity for phonics reading comprehension fluency spelling letter recognition but it does not diagnose anything so this is a uh some kind of software that they take or is

033it an actual person that's standing there and giving some kind of test there there are a variety of Assessments um and right now we there is a working group to determine which assessments would be approved um some schools already use a a reading assessment called Dibbles um it is considered a dyslexia sensitive screener and that is administered um in person we are looking into um online screeners or um um digital screeners but we we um haven't made a determination on the um effectiveness of them and that's what the work group is doing so every single student in eight from kindergarten to third grade would go through some kind of a test or assessment or screening tool yes yes would be screened for um so how does that work individually they go to a separate room

034separate time it is um it is um laborious but it gives very in-depth information so um uh in person the Dibbles which is an example of a screener does take um an adult an adult to student ratio yes and schools do it differently they might do it in a different classroom it might be in a section of the classroom um somebody else does have to cover the classroom if it is the teacher admin so there are Logistics involved um but again it does give right and that the $750,000 is for the that whole process correct is that what you're saying so all those schools will have a a consistent similar process not one school do it one way one school do another way at at this time we're we're looking at giving a recommendation of

035screeners that schools can select from so they might already be using something that's on the list and we wouldn't want them to change um from that others might be using um a an online um Universal screener that might um with additional add-ons qualify as a dyslexic dyslexia sensitive screener so we wouldn't want to take that option away yeah I asked this because when we did the kindergarten assessments we thought it was going to be the teacher to just assess whether or not the child uh had gone to preschool or not and what we ended up having is the department spending a lot of money a million dollars on bringing in some some assessment from the mainland and applying it to the kindergarteners which had some push back from the teachers and at this point you

036know that that t is is not worth anything is given to you at that point so I just want to make sure what we're getting what you folks are doing and that you don't overspend by duplicating or you know if you found a really good program we're going to go with it but to have so many different kinds of program might be not cost effective so I just hope you folks look at that as you administer now you folks also administer um an add right um to all the kids or some kids how do how does that work to screen a child for ADHD that that also would be done by a licensed professional do that now correct and what is the cost to do that and what grades do you do that um it

037it would go through a referral process so it would be all grades it goes through a referral process and then the team um would decide that um an assessment is necessary and so a licensed professional would come and do that assessment and give a diagnosis okay and at that assessment they also can pinpoint um dyslexia yes yes because my son went through that yes for uh add and during that process they found that he was slightly thisle and so we found that out so I'm just want wanting to make sure that all of these assessments are sort of somehow put together I mean not that every single child has that but that we're not doing duplication so if a child goes through ADH um assessment that we can also look for dyslexia at the same

038time that they're doing it and not have to administer a whole different set of Assessments or tests or whatever it is you're putting that understood thank you um I think Senator um Kim hit on what I was going to ask so basically my question was are all students being screened as the bill is written now yes in grades K to three k to three and um the cost for this because is this going to take something besides a nurse or clinician to well if if we screen all students in K to 3 it would cost 700 about we're estimating $750,000 but all students it's not if the teacher recommends it this is all students yes thank you members further questions thank you Heidi thank you okay we went through the list was there anyone else

039here wishing to testify this measure not we are on Senate Bill 1389 relating to therapy services expands the Scopes of practice for occupational therapists physical therapists and speech pathologists to allow those professionals working for a contracted working for or contracted by the Department of Education to diagnose medical conditions that can be treated with respective services to testify Dey good afternoon again Heidi Armstrong Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure thank you thank you Christopher Fernandez executive officer Board of Speech Pathology and audiology and Cher keani Vice chair K and members of the committee I'm sorry but Christopher Fernandez is in a board meeting right now so the board of Speech Pathology and Audiology stands on its written testimon your name please oh I'm sorry I'm Candace I'm

040an executive officer with the DC Candace e thank you relle AR rocki executive officer Board of physical therapy good afternoon chair Vice chair members of the committee R rocki executive officer of the board of physical therapy the board stands on his written testimony offering comments thank you thank you Melle Candace did you have your own testimony yes thank you Shani Shar Kim and members of the committee I'm Candace EO I'm an executive officer for the Occupational Therapy Program and the department stands on its written testimony thank you Randy Pereira executive director o government employees Association hello chair Vice chair members of the committee uh neie sebasti here with AA we'll s out a rent testimony in opposition to this measure M thank you Ryan Yani director Department of Human Services on Zoom hoha chair members

041of the committee Jud more Peterson on behalf of uh director yamane we stand in on with the Department of Human Services uh we stand on our written testimony and support thank you thank you Judy Douglas white chair American Physical Therapy Association of good afternoon chair Vice chair and members I'm Douglas white I am testifying on behalf of the uh American Physical Therapy Association of Hawaii we submitted written testimony in opposition to this bill uh we believe it will not achieve its intent and would uh constrain not expand the scope of practice for physical therapist in Hawaii we are ready to work with the the Department of Education to achieve their goal of getting reimbursement although this would not be uh we would not be in support of this measure thank you Douglas Sydney heer on

042Zoom not on Zoom chair Margarita Bradford on Zoom no other presentent on Zoom chair Christy Salvador on [Music] zoom and Johnson on Zoom Christina Fuentes president Hawaii speech language hearing Association on Zoom no other uh no other um participants on Zoom chair thank you for that information because that was a long of names okay members questions question of the sole purposes of supporting this so you can get a reimbursement supporting this bill um would allow us to um attempt to claim reimbursement for occupational therapy physical therapy and speech services but is that the only reason why the for the purposes of this Bill yes a change would need right now we cannot claim for those Services um the purpose of this bill is to create the conditions where we can claim um so right now

043you do physical therapy you give physical therap to students yes under what what situations um the I AP team has determined that the child has a need um that requires physical therapy or occupational therapy or speech and language Services okay I guess I just you know I understand there's a lot of need out there but at some point whether the schools mission is education and I can see speech therapy speech being part of it physical therapy I mean it you know pretty much you everything going to go to the school so I guess I'm asking what what point is the school is going to really say what is our mission and what should we be doing and where do we need to focus our um attention and our resources on because it seems like everything

044is thrown into doe and you become the cat out nursing physical therapist all kinds of medical things that should be should not be part of do but you FKS keeps supporting everything so everything gets given to you guys I mean what point are we going to reach that a agreed and I do think the term medical diagnosis in this bill um is what has um I've read through the testimonies the concern of the OT ptn speech um community and if this bill should move forward I um we would want to look at what is the terminology that can be used that um May expand their scope of practice but does not um ask them or require them to diagnose something that is out of their scope of practice and I think that's what the worry

045is so language would need to be changed we would then need to see if that Lang AG for the purpose of this bill to get Medicaid reimbursement if that language would suffice but there but again is that the world of schools to be you know administering physical therapy and then diagnosing physical the therapy and so forth I mean that the role of the school those Services we do need to provide um for children who do need them under chapter 60 special educ is that our our our laws state we created that it it's Federal it is federal yes okay well it might change right if everything comes back to the States um at some point I guess I'm just you know trying to trying to get a hold of this because we keep putting everything

046under doe and at some point even the teachers you know my sister was a teacher and she says you know I got to I got to give medication I got to change diapers I've got to do this I have she goes this is not what I signed up for this is not what I went to school for U and I understand there are special needs um children I'm not you know speaking against that so parents if you're out there and you're thinking that you know Way Off the Mark it's like at some point then you know why don't we get rid of Department of Health get rid of all stuff and just put it under do and you know you administer you diagnose you you set you know maybe from I don't know maybe from

047one years old we start sending them to doe and you guys started ministering early and medication and you know vaccines and everything I mean that might save us a lot we can do that yes can I clarify one thing chapter 60 is our our our law but it's based on idea which is the federal law I think I misspoke just a second ago because we've we've given more and more to you folks and you've taken it and accepted it a part of it I think at some point we have to look at um you know what is the mission can't be all things that we need to give it to the right entities to deal with those situations okay thank you other questions so Heidi I guess my question very similar to Senator Kim would

048be how many do we have um an estimate of how many children that teachers have to administer medication or do something that Medical in nature for our students and how many more so will be if this law is passed well for for this law because we're talking about occupational therapy physical therapy and speech language we do have 1,172 students um who receive Occupational Therapy Services we have 230 students who receive Physical Therapy Services and we have 4,435 students who receive speech language Services how massage you guys M for teachers no I mean you're laughing because at some point me you know because I'm sure that some of these with physical therapy and I know I've going to physical therapy I certainly need a job also massage therapy but it wasn't covered I'm not sure if

049HS is great to testify this me yeah so I'm not sure um if they have opposed other bills relating to having to do the teachers having to do medical uh services to students and I can understand their point of view but I also understand that students need to be in school and taught so it's a very difficult um situation you know for the parents for the students and then for the teachers who are supposed to be in the classs teaching and you having this extra um duty to do so it's a it's a difficult question for us to to man but thank you for your [Music] testimony did I go through all the yes okay moving on I will note that we just on this past measure that we looked at we had more people

050in opposition um and we did support moving on Senate Bill 1548 REI relating to the Department of Education exempts doe purchases of local edible produce and packages food products less than a certain amount from the electronic procurement system requirement requires at least three written local edible produce and package food products between certain amounts requires at least two written quotes for Department of Education purchases of local edible produce and packaged food products between certain amounts for for for certain schools in rural communities to testify doe please good afternoon Cher kidani Vice chair K members of the committee dinu Deputy superintendent with the Department of Education the department stands on it written testimony in support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you kavika kahako Network program coordinator for Hawaii Public Health Institute

051and support on Zoom Bonnie Kakui administrator for State procurement office in person thank you for joining us Bonnie good afternoon chair as Vice chair members of the committee Monica Ki administrator State procurement office we will stand on our written testimony providing recommendations thank you thank you Bonnie no Shaw on Zoom is there anybody on Zoom no particip been on Zoom chair thank you okay other questions members question so right now when you and I assume this is for the school es and M that's correct so do you do the schools purchase directly from a large entity well generally we have like the the dod list and then we have a separate supplemental list and they they get to select from the vendors on those lists and they order from them so you don't order from

052a large vendor and then that vendor goes and gets it from the smaller that's ideally how we like to handle it right because we were concerned about like food safety food handling security kind of things so so like now if you were to go to like I don't know folks purchase to White House um what's your what's your biggest I think we have hat we have uh what na on Maui we have like one on every island right now okay so you purchase to them and then they go and they purchase to the local from their Farmers right right um but if they can get it cheaper from elsewhere they do right oh yeah we let the vent that the distributor figure out who to purchase from right so how does this change that well

053this is kind of a a tool to try and get the small farmers to do deal directly with with us right um we we're just looking at different ways to procure because we're trying to hit that 30 by 30 so people have come up with different suggestions and kind of this is like one of another tool in our toolbx that we can use okay so if you're already going through a a vendor which is the and the vendor can go directly to the farmers and get it then how does this come into play you're going to then go and and work at the same vendors or different vendors or I mean to me it sounds like yeah you got a lot of tools but I don't know at what point you know which tools to

054and where two tools are being used at the same time I agree all right right now we're just trying to struggle with how do we get the local produce um be able to select local produce because it's going to be a higher price than the mail and stuff and the Enders usually go with the the lowest price right so we're trying to figure out how to set up a procurement that is only local that we can get the low price from the local vendors instead of having the mail and stuff come in so have you talked with yeah we've had discussions with with her we trying to work out the procurement from our side working with her on because wouldn't it be better to let the the big vendor know hey we want this we

055want you to procure locally and it's going to cost more but I mean it's the same thing if you folks procure locally going to cost us whatever they're going to Hope but you going to cost the same thing right but it's more coordination more work yeah so we have a we have a local preference in the the the ifbs right now but this just a preference we cannot require them to just provide us with the local and I'm not sure if we can just say the procurement is only for the local produce right I I don't I don't I don't know if that's legal or not so we I'm still struggling trying to figure out to do it well that's what we're trying to figure out right now how we can set up the process

056so we can I'm just saying that I think if you're going to use a vendor you should use a vendor and there should be some requirement if you're not going to use that big vendor that you use them for whatever you take away his discretion to go to the mainland and you you do it you know what I'm saying so there's two completely instead of part of one one and a half and then another half here because it's going to be at the end of the day we going to be back in front of us and we're going to say what's going on I'm trying to figure it out I'm still trying to figure it out but then you have this build in front of us I know it's well yeah we we're just looking

057like it's another tool that we can use we're trying to get to some giv you guys tools because you guys don't use the tools correctly a lot of times we're going to try okay you might want to explain the 30 by 30 I know for the audience 30 by 30 we need to have 30% of our Lo 30% of our food products have to be locally purchased locally by 2030 and right now we're like 5 and a half right so we got a ways to go that's why we're trying to figure out a different way of procuring thank you questions C okay um thanks Dean so so I guess the question really is is when are you allowing each of the schools to then have this procurement or is there some level of coordination somewhere

058we we're trying to coordinate at at the state level because the schools don't have the staff to do procurement contract management everything so so I think there they in Li your problem is if you're going to use go from the state level and try and procure all these small vendors that's just really complicated because the problem is is there's a lot of small farmers out there right but they don't want to deal with five schools they likely don't have capacity so I'm I'm just trying to understand where you're trying to get out because I I think that the you know Senator Kim actually brings up a good point you actually need these third party vendors to do the leg work for you because part of it is you're not going to get the supply all

059the time like you know as local farmers are going to have sometimes but then you're going to have to then back fill with Mainland product but yes you want to do locals first but I'm just trying to understand why you would want to be exempt because at some point you're going to have to procure somehow cuz if you're going to go direct are you also then saying you're going to lower the standards for these Farmers cuz some of these farmers aren't probably meeting what the doe requirement is and that's why nobody wants to work with a doe because your requirements are too high but if they go through a third party vendor like the watab they're processing for you and then it goes to your your your level that you want it right so so

060I'm just trying to understand what what what link are you trying to fix because I think in my mind you have the tools you're not using your third party adequately right well yeah that that's the delivery system I would prefer we have a distributor in every island and they go and solicit produce from the different Farmers on that island M's fine so I don't know what what the problem is on aahu yes that's a system we're trying to set up so that we can have preference for local products instead of but then so so then the question becomes is how did how did you procure that on Maui or is it just because you know the watsab are doing such a good job how can you replicate that maybe that's the the question you have

061to answer we're trying to set up the same thing on every island so we have one distributor hands it and then there's a preference for local we trying to get so then why aren't you asking for that then maybe you got to come in to change change that preference to make sure it's it's greater than a preference requirement that's the proc that's the procurement part we're trying to work out yeah this is yeah but that bill is something else right bill so you're not well but but you're yeah I mean I we just look at as another tool to help us get to that 30 by so I guess the thing is we want you to come with what you actually need to be successful I know this is someone else's bill but you got

062to tell us okay this is not what we need we need something else I'm still trying to figure that out right now okay so maybe it's too premature than this bill it could be okay okay thank you chair I want so I tell people if you the experts are not going to tell us how to solve this issue we're going to dream it up you're going to get bills like this and if you're going to come in and say well there's one more tool no you're the expert supposingly so you need to tell us if you don't know yet then it's premature you should tell us and not just oh yeah somebody took this bill in yeah we could use one more tool yeah and that's the problem we have all these bills out there

063that and laws that sometimes don't make any sense yeah if you can't figure it out yet I don't know how this bill is going to figure it out for you I agree you changing your testimony now so really I to everybody out there think about the testimony think about what your mission is when you F's coming in and writing testimony in support of legislators bills because we we dream this up you know we have nothing better to do then to dream of bills on how you can do your job more efficiently so but you guys are the ones that have to deliver it and you're the one that then at some point be accountable for it even though it wasn't your idea to begin with it's going to be if you support it it's going

064to be yours and you're going to have to defend it and you're going to have to be accountable for it understood thank you thank you other questions I'm not sure so do you guys work with our um State procurement office on some of the issues that we're you're probably faced with we have procurement within our department and we're working closely with the state procurement office trying to figure this out okay Bonnie can you come back you in in your testimony you said to add local to the food products is there a definition for local food product there is a packaged is it grown is it it's there is a definition I don't see it in this one but uh there there is a definition and it's grown grown in Hawaii grown in Hawaii yeah grown

065and produced um and I don't remember all the details out but there is a it has to be yes a Hawaii product 51% 50 51% and I think there's another bill that says is calling it 100% so we're going to have to take a look at that okay thank you further questions thank you moving on relating to Charter School Senate Bill 494 requires the department of budget and Finance in collaboration with the auditor to conduct a financial audit of each Charter School operating in the state requires a report to the legislature appropriates funds to testify PJ for good afternoon chair Vice chair etno executive director Public Charter School commission uh we did submit written testimony uh with comments and stand by those and we'll be available for questions can you explain what your comments are

066are you in support or the the support well it was more comments around um we already do on annual Financial audits um we have independent Auditors um per statute and they we have currently have four who do annual audits for each of the charter schools they use um uh auditing government auditing standards and generally accepted accounting principles and so we definitely will work with what whatever the committee uh recommends um other state agencies and our public charter schools but just wanted to clarify that um annual audits do already exist are already done and correct who gets the audit the board um we do we do have the audits that come into the commission and then we submit those as part of our annual report thank you Ed how long have you guys been doing those

067uh the audits since the um the new statute 302d those have been part of the uh 2011 is when that task force was put in place and so um and that's really I wanted to emphasize that's that is a really significant piece that our schools go through this annual audit since 2011 since okay so based on some of the things that have been uncovered about uncovered about about some Charter Schools how did this thing not catch that how did these these audits not catch that well we do a risk assessment based on those standard practices and so we do assign a risk value and those really are targeted for federal funds and I know that through but again it's a very exhaustive audit um some schools um if there's a lag in the question is

068how did those schools that Financial issues that came in the newspaper if you're doing these Audits and you're supposed to be couching those things how did they how did they not get caught yeah that's because you're telling us you you have it already and you don't need this but apparently there's been issues right there there have been I will also say there's been a lot work that's been done on the financial performance framework and it's a learning process Whenever there is an issue then it gets addressed um but those are generally um do get flagged and again they're assigned a risk value and that's what will um require they may a followup or to learn more information about what's happening at the school level thank you members further questions I had [Applause] questions um yeah

069I don't have anyone else testifying there's comments there's one in opposition but no one here in person or is there someone I missed anyone on zoom on Zoom chair thank you no further questions members um TJ I mean sorry director no so how how often did you say that the charters are doing the audits yeah I'd have to check I know during the task force in 2011 is when the commission was formed I actually I wanted to double check exactly when those dates are or if there were amendments and things to address the financial framework I will definitely get that back to you yeah so I I would like to know how many audits they've done and what we've found and if there's things that you can relay back to us that we can look

070at and um yes often how often you're required I will definitely get back the exact date but the annual um audit as part of the annual report for charter schools has been um in statute so I'll just make sure I get that exact date for you and are the audits made public yes thank you okay I think we're on our last item Senate Bill 819 relating to education requires a Hawaii teacher standard Bo to establish an intermediate I'm sorry to to establish an international teacher license for certain Visa holders establishes criteria for obtaining an international teacher license to testify Department of Education please good afternoon Cher kidani Vice chair Marcato members of the committee Sean bacon assistant superintendent from the Department of Education we stand on our written testimony and strong support of this measure

071and we really thank you for the opportunity and be available to answer any questions thank you thank you sh Geraldine Suzuki individual being here individual in support chrisy miam y teachers Standards Board aloh Cher kidani uh Vice chair marato Kim and Senator Hashimoto my name is Christy mumi and I am a teacher at Milani middle school or I have had the privilege of working there for 21 of my 23 years in education I also have a license in special education middle level math and language arts and I serve currently as the chair of the Hawaii teacher Standards Board today I'm speaking opposition to SB 819 relating to education on behalf of the Hawaii teacher standard board the mission and vision is to ensure that every public school student in Hawaii is taught by a highly

072qualified teacher we achieve this by maintaining rigorous professional teaching license standards ensuring equal access and opportunity for all applicants to meet those standards J1 teachers who meet the necessary qualifications for lure have been granted Hawaii teacher Standards Board licensed in their respective Fields And as a regulatory body for Teacher lure the teacher Standards Board is empowered by the uh Hawaii revised statutes uh to determine licensing and certification standards um the teacher Standards Board became a separate entity by Statute designed to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest between employment and lure the teacher Standards Board doesn't charge licensing and application fees beyond the cost of exams and in contrast these states mentioned in the Preamble charge application and Licensing fees um I'd like to point out that prais also offers at home examinations and theyve done

073so since 2019 allowing Educators to take the exam from anywhere in the world um while we respect the knowledge and experience of our J1 teachers the teacher Standards Board belief is that International teachers should meet the same standards as those teachers who obtain a teaching degree these exams ensure that teachers have the necessary content knowledge grade level and grade span expertise and field specific qualifications they're a critical part of ensuring our teachers are prepared to meet the needs of ho students the teacher Standards Board strongly believes this bill is unnecessary and we are fully capable of handling the licensing renewing and adding fields to license without compromising our standards this bill threatens to weaken the high standards that ensure Hawaii's teachers are truly qualified to teach I respectfully urge the committee to oppose SB 819

074and allow the teacher Standards Board to continue our Vital work of upholding High licensing standards and to provide every child in Hawaii with qualified excellent Educators thank you for your time and consideration thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify oh yeah I had them on Zoom okay in person thank you good afternoon Cher kidani Vice chair Kim Senator and herichi from the Department of the Attorney General um to summarize Our Testimony there's a couple of references to the word uh or use of the word Educators that is not a defined term in the statute so um we suggest replacing Educators with the word teacher um the more um meteor part of our testimony is that we noted that in paragraph 7 of um it's on page six of the bill this new

075paragraph 7 combines two concepts one is establishing the license and the other is setting forth conditions for the issuance of the license and combining the two in one paragraph might be confusing also the bill doesn't discuss any conditions that might be necessary for renewing the license so in our testimony we have suggested um a revision to paragraph 7 that we think will address and and make things a bit clearer thank you I'm available available for questions thank you okay anyone else here wishing to testify Amy uh my name is am bayani representing the Hawaii um friends of civil rights we strongly support this measure and I have written testimony thank you and is there anyone in the room wishing to testify in this measure before I go to zoom okay on Zoom we have attorney

076uh pinky Grace Francisco teacher not present on Zoom chair Michelle Tad sixth grade teacher also not present on Zoom Rosa walking Filipino Association of UN Unity women also not present chair is there anyone on Zoom uh no no participants on Zoom chair thank you okay is there anyone else wishing to testify if not EMB questions yeah I have a question who do I ask a question um question that's your question yes what's the what's the issue or what's the problem that we're having right now that takes this spill because it seems like the teacher standard board from what they said is is doing this so what's the problem so thank you uh senator marim for the question I think um some of the things that are happening right now we are not opposed to what

077the standards board is saying about maintaining quality we want to make sure we have a quality educator in our classroom um currently right now I believe the Standards Board does have reciprocity agreements with all other 49 states at this point right now if you do have a license in one of the other 49 states and meet certain criteria they're able to then transfer their license from the from the um continent over to Hawaii these International teachers don't have a similar reciprocity type of agreement so I think what we're trying to look for here is some type of fairness or Equity so when they're coming from an international country they're able to show that they've had a bachelor's degree or equivalent that's been independently evaluated from an independent organization that shows that it's equivalent to that

078of the United States you know we're looking to make sure that they um have a license coming from their other country um and looking for similarities between the two so that we can um have our um J1 program individuals be able to be licensed in the state of Hawaii for the time that they are here if they do have a license in Hawaii they're able to stay up to 5 years at this point right now without the license and only with a permit they're only eligible to stay up to 3 years into our classrooms would do all of this review and this determination at the end of the day so I think currently right now um I do have one of our main recruiters here James urbanc um if I can ask James to come

079up I think part of what what is happening right now is um we do have our J1 um Outside Agency when we are going to the Philippines currently right now to do some of this recruiting our Outside Agency is doing some of this screening for us right now who does evaluation at an end of the day who approves it so umce yourself yeah hi James urbanc uh human resource officer with the Department uh so the evaluation of our International Educators is done by what's called Naes it's an independent group that evaluates every International teacher's transcript and they and it's both used by the teacher Standards Board and the doe and they issue a report and that report goes course by course what every International teacher takes and they issue whether or not that teacher has

080the equivalent of a United States teacher trained educator so they issue us that report every one of our International Educators has a international um transcript that shows that they are equal to a US educator so who makes the decision inter so we actually the Department of State issues the actual visa on behalf of these teachers they're monitored by the Department of State and we coordinate with the Department of State and our Visa provider to bring these teachers over here to Hawaii so you're the one that says they can practice and become I'm the one that does the initial screening and then our principles are the ones Statewide who hire the Educators directly so they make the employment decisions and whether or not to hire the teachers and keep them in our schools But ultimately it's

081up to the Standards Board to either issue the license or permit in order for them to be eligible to work in any Hawaii public school right so they they are the ones even though you approve them they're the ones that have to give the license that is correct they don't feel that they need their criteria they don't give them the lense is that correct that's correct and Senator Kim if I may I what would this F do if that's what the process is the this bill would allow the International Educator to be treated exactly the same way that our United States trained educators are treated so I brought this as a visual example because this is a little complicated it shouldn't be but essentially you see these two apples they are chachis that we give

082out on recruitment trips these are essentially they identical the teachers from the Philippines have an international transcript that shows that they have the equivalent of a US degree in teaching they also take a standardized Countrywide exam which is based on basic skills content knowledge and pedagogy which is teaching skills and they pass that exam they also have multiple years of experience when they apply for a teaching license in Hawaii they are denied and they are told they need to take additional exams in order to prove their highly qualified status which we know based off our International transcript evaluation that both the teacher Standards Board and the doe accept that they meet those requirements this teacher is someone like myself from New Jersey who moved here 20 years years ago or someone from Minnesota that moves

083here tomorrow [Music] yeah so the question I have is you're accepting evaluations from this entity that reviews teachers for the US and the same one that it for international could I ask our executive director to come up since they're The Specialist ele good afternoon chair Vice chair members of committee Felicia bobos executive director of the Hawaii teacher Standards Board thank you so if you're using the same evaluators and so if they're from the US they get they get accepted but if it's International and there's more subjectiveness that go into it is that yeah so for our us counterparts they have accreditation and they are vetted in the US for international like James said they use the nasus evaluation so it's an evaluation company where they submit the transcripts now that's for equivalency on bachelor's degrees

084um but our preparation is a little bit different from the US to International we found that in different parts of the world um so one of the concerns the board has is we monitor testing and one of the issues with the testing is our International counterparts are having difficulty passing a basic skills in reading and writing um so they come in with degrees but it's still they're having they're struggling with the basic and the basic common core test not common core the basic core test for practice is at a high school level for Reading Writing and math and unfortunately they're not able to pass that that test at the proficiency level of our other us uh teacher candidates great I can understand that I've interviewed people with degrees and graduated from from law school and

085they couldn't even write a letter thank you letter when asked so um there are different I guess different levels and how they're being evaluated uh is language a problem that you see um as far as accent and being able to understand because I know at the University of Hawaii I get a lot of complaints from parents and from students saying that they can't not understand the professors some professors that may be from a different country because the accent is is too too great and so they drop out and they go to the community colleges because they having difficulty so is that also an issue the only thing we monitor is the testing the evaluation uh we're not in the school as the employer is but we can probably have Dr Jennifer pwad speak to the

086because that that question was brought up on the house side as well if that's okay with you folks good afternoon chair uh Vice chair and committee MERS my name is Dr Jennifer padwa I'm a licensing specialist at the white teacher Standards Board also I was a classroom teacher and um like which can be an issue not just for Filipino teachers but anybody like had mentioned um that come from an international or grew up internationally but that's not consider part of your so uh like director had said we um we used the pracy core exams um as basic skills that's a norm reference test um I also want to sort of point out something else I went to school I did my undergraduate work in Oregon and and children not children but college students who go

087away for Teacher preparation program they may or may not end up with a license in that state and so just to use me as an example when I went to Oregon my college preparation said do you want an Oregon license um and my plan was to stay in Oregon um and so I got one but many local kids who don't feel like they are going to stay in the states they choose not to get a license and then they come back home and they now they have to go through the state requirements of licensure which also includes um the content exam the basic core requirements ments as well as what we call Professional learning and principles of learning and teaching and so those who do not accept a license or agree to a license from

088an outof State program they will still use um they still need to take those exams just like any other International teacher so teachers from the Philippines we are seeing teachers from New Zealand and so what this does is it it quarters everybody regardless of you if you went to the international or did not get a license from an out ofate preparation program they are taking the same exams based on the content or their major how Rous these exam excuse me how Rous exam so like uh director said the basic core exam is high school level and the principles of learning and teaching that is dependent on the pedagogy so if you're an elementary you would take the kindergarten through sixth grade principles of learning um teaching if you're secondary you would take the 6 through

08912 so just one one example so it it depends so the basic core is just what we call Basic Skills so those are three exams uh Math Science and language arts principles of learning and teaching addresses the pedagogy can you or do you have enough knowledge and different strategies based on the grade level and then the third exam is what we call content knowledge so like cherem ma she's in special education so she would take a special education exam okay so it's two to three exams and within that exams might have twoam yeah there there are subsections within the exam so if they fail any part of it then they don't they deny they don't get denied they're they're they can take the exams as much as they want to and there's no charge um

090in Hawaii there is a charge for the practices exams um but but my understanding and you can clarify with the Department of Education is that when they pass their exams they get reimbursed but that's something and from what I understand there are some principles who are offering to pay um for the practice exam for some of there can they uh if they don't get a license from you can they do like a Subs substitute teaching or can they come in as resource teachers on a temporary basis yeah so I I can answer that of chair so anyone with a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited institution can get an emergency hire permit often times of people like our local kids who come back home because they didn't get a license on the continent they will

091start with an emergency hire permit as they work their way through their exams I would like to point out this past summer there are current Filipino teachers who have graduated from the Philippines and for some reason they're not being hired as full-time teachers I had one teacher who who has been at the same school since 2009 she has a degree um from the Philippines she has a license in math secondary as well as Tagalog and she has been a ea a part-time teacher and I'm not sure why the department is not um hiring her I we've also had other EAS and part-time teachers as you're suggesting who didn't know they could get an emergency hire permit and they also have graduated did um from University of the some University in the Philippines so there are

092existing Filipino teachers I'm an advocate for having Filipino teachers now these teachers you're talking about are they licensed or they have to be hired before they new LIC so the one example I gave she has a license she's had a provisional license for over 10 years um she has not been hired as a full-time teacher she's been hired as an EA I believe this year she a part-time teacher and she's been working as substitute teacher so there there are teachers or at least you know we do have walk-ins and they like the one teacher came to me and said oh my principal she had a brand new principal and he said how come you're not having your license and she didn't even know she had been working as an EA all these years okay thank

093you very much for that I learn a whole lot today thank you thank you further questions so I guess I'm a little confused on why you guys cuz when I'm reading the bill all it says is it's for a it's very specific that it's a visiting program for a short period of time and yet your standard is incredibly high for these visiting teachers so I guess the the thing that we have to then contemplate is would would we rather have a substitute or would that may not have all these credentials or would you rather have an international person that you know that at least has a pretty decent degree that they've sought it out I'm sure the doe doesn't just hire everyone on the spot so I'm not sure why there's no give on your

094on your side especially because it says it's it's a very short period and then you do realize we need a thousand new teachers a year and we only produce 500 every single year so HST you know Standards Board is not trying to help the situation well I just wanted to um state that you know um right now there's um going across the nation we're worried a little bit about these I don't want to call them popup univers ities or popup programs that um are giving licenses very easily so you know if we start opening the door to that and we don't have some type of like criteria in place like the practice then we start you know it could have unintentional consequences where we just become almost like a licensing Mill so that's I think

095that's one of the but it does say that it requires verification of three years of employment at public or private school in Pre through 12th grade setting so I would assume that the doe would have at least had to screen them at some point before they get that verification so so you don't agree that that's enough because you don't trust the doe that they're going to be able to hire good people and then you then then because you don't want to certify them well I think the standard of just having the basic you know um Reading Writing math at a 12th grade level you know I get it but it's a standardized test do you guys do any interviews of of people to to to check to to see their interpersonal skills cuz I would

096think that's more than important than taking a computer test don't you think it it is but we're not but you do that as a licensing agency we have so your answer is no correct okay so so so so my question to you then what is your solution to help us with the teacher shortage that we're facing in our state at least the Department of Education is coming to us with the solution they're bringing in j1's but are you guys doing anything on your part to help with the teacher shortage in our state we we are um we okay so what so what is it then I don't see I don't see a bill that that's trying to help you to do that we are we have the teacher apprenticeship the registered teacher apprenti but but

097as I said we need a thousand teachers a year do you have a thousand through that program well hopefully if we get funding from the state that would help out so so your answer is no right is it a thousand teachers a year I could I could propose no no no I'm asking a question is it a th teachers a year it is not a th000 so what I'm trying to say is we need options in the toolbox and you guys are being kind of in my mind kind of just saying no we don't want to we don't want to help out we don't want to cooperate so so these are the options that I'm going to suggest to you so the first option is I maybe ask the Department of Education how many educational

098assistants and part-time teachers who already have a bachelor's degree have a teacher license or completed a sayp from internationally the experiences that we've been having there are Filipino teachers who are there so that's one suggestion the second suggestion is when they're bringing in their J1 they are being hired they're they're being hired as an Emergen High hire teacher per permit and they can work full-time so they're not a substitute teacher or an 89 day hire as you're suggesting and my my third comment is we are not the only state that are struggling with with teachers it's a it's across the nation and there there's really two prong for this the Naes evaluates accredit of an institution lure varies from state to state for example in the bill that was written they had suggested that Nevada

099has International license Nevada also requires exams but Nevada also requires family and Community practices so teachers in though the J1 teachers that are going to other states there are other lensia requirements in Alaska they also have to take the exams Alaska also has Alaska Multicultural course that they have to take at the University as well as a Alaska indigenous C course and so we we have to look at things differently from two perspectives one you're looking at an accreditation from an institution perspective we have licensing data that goes across every 50 states that have different criteria so we're not I I get it but as I said we're trying to find a solution I think the doe actually has done a pretty good job in this this case and yet you're just giving excuses in

100my my mind right and so so I think that's the hard part that's the hard part for me to swallow is you're going to come in and a pose yet I got I got a really good email from one of my principals in my district she emailed me to say you better support this kind of Bill if you want to see teachers in your classroom yes right and so so if if you gave me a better answer on saying okay we're testing for interpersonal skills we're testing on all these other things that will make a good teacher in a classroom maybe I can buy this high standard but I I think you're just if it's a computer test it really bothers me and I think you're you're saying a whole lot of interesting things but

101I think the bottom line is we have to make sure that yes there's a standard but we cannot we cannot at it cannot be at the expense of then having empty classrooms with no teachers or unqualified teachers yeah and I certainly understand that and you know in three years we're going to come back to the same situation now there's going to be empty classrooms again well but at least at least then that you better go do your part with your apprentices then right is that's because that you said that's your program this is their Band-Aid what's your Solution that's what I would ask you [Music] right can I to cide us with how how many teachers are there that are not full-time teachers or are as was pointed out that you use and how many

102um j1s do you folks do hire on a temporary basis or So currently right now yeah so currently right now we have just a little over 200 of our j1s uh that are are currently in our classrooms they are right now have were originally hired with as basically an emergency hire some have went through the process and have been able to get the full license which allows them to stay here for up to 5 years we have recently went to the Philippines James and part of his crew um to start recruiting for next year's group we have about 16 of them that we have screened and went through that original list that James um started with in the philp it's nearly a thousand teachers that we started we've narrowed it down to 100 so we

103really were looking for Quality with those teachers before we're ready to bring them to the United States and invest in them um but you know that that those are some of the those are some of the things that we're working on there are some that are educational assistants out there that may be able to go through this apprenticeship program if this does get off the ground and rolling but but not all educational assistants want to become teachers either some want to stay as an educational assistant in the classroom well how many of them do want to and is not being given that opportunity and been there for a couple years so we have done a pilot program in the last few years in the y9 nula area where it is an educational assistant to um

104teacher pilot Pro program it's it's a few that's not a lot that went through the program and you know it takes a lot of um assistance with them we were working with other independent agencies such as in peace to help to provide them the supports and working through the program I mean I think that's kind of what the apprenticeship program would be is if that does Get Growing is it it's uh the model really for that is the EA to teacher pipeline for that apprenticeship program and so if they come in and they meet the requirements they don't have to go to an apprenticeship program well the apprenticeship program you know they would start out they'd be in educational assistant one educational assistant 2 and they' work their way up to a teacher if they

105if they get a license if they pass over whatever the the inter interviews but all the reviews like they do for Mainland teachers and they get a license do they still have to go to the um through this um for the educational assistant ones or the go through the um the course the um sorry you just said it practice the the practice one the yes oh so for the educational assistant they would still have to have the regular coursework through the universities they would also have to go through a state approved teacher education um student teaching program when you bring in the J1 correct and if they pass if they go they apply and you guys review their thing and they and they granted a license do they still have to go to this um

106course that you're talking about no so right now the j1's if they were what's happening is they need to come through they need to take the three practice courses Reading Writing and math and then the additional practice course I believe in their content knowledge to be able to be transferred over from an emergency hire permit over to the full license Senator Kim if I'm is there any other place that your folks are um recruiting from what other areas are you recruiting So currently right now our vendor is mainly working with the Philippines I do believe James can speak to this we do have a few others from uh Kenya I believe that are also teaching in some of classrooms what other areas are you are you um recruiting from and how do you determine where

107you recruit great question so if I may the part of it is principal driven so we have a lot of classes that are doing dual language immersion like haon Elementary is looking for Japanese instructors so we're working on that um we also are open to any countries that have us equivalencies so as you know there's so many Filipinos that are in the healthcare industry and that's because the Philippines has modeled after the US educational system so that's why there is a lot of teachers coming from the Philippines and that's why those educational equivalencies exist which allows us to bring teachers in from the Philippines and Kenya and other places that have similar educational models or instructions in English where they go through those similarities okay so can you provide the committee with the list of

108all the areas that have the similarities and how how success been recruiting those thank you are the questions members thank you please thank you very much chair Vice chair members of the committee Keith aashi superintendent um just want to Echo uh and and kind of build upon what senat tashimoto had shared about principles and principles thoughts on go1 teachers um you know I've been fortunate to the last several years to go and visit schools across the state um every J1 classroom that I've gone into we find passionate teachers are passionate about supporting students uh all of our all of our all of our principles I don't know if any one principal that has J1 teachers that don't want more of them and I think there is testimony that has been supported to the committee um

109echoing that so you know I do want to thank James and and Sean and um office of human resources and talent management I I believe this is a really really good program um and and I gauge that also by the impact and the feedback that I get from principles in the classrooms in schools and and they're asking for more which is a really good thing and J1 teachers can only teach up to two to five years if if they are licensed I believe they can teach five for five years that's correct if they're unlicensed for three and if I'm not mistaken if I heard correctly earlier when we talked that um if they are not licensed they may not stay for even for three years yeah we will have a hundred of our J1 teachers

110leave at the end of this school year because their visa is only for three and what happens um after the five years they go back they return for two years as part of their cultural exchange where they go back to the Philippines and share what they've done with the students there so that way there's no brain drain and and it's the license is no longer about here they come back if they if they come back the the current provisional license may not be valid if they don't renew it but it could be if they do um but the the the way that the bill is set up is that they do return they would receive the international visitor te license thank you thank you okay members we have over extended our time so I'm going

111to think a recess and can gather our thoughts calling the committee on education back to order we are in decision making and for Senate Bill 421 relating to literacy recommendation of the chair is to pass with Amendment which requires structur structured literacy instruction as required under this section shall involve detailed step-by-step instruction necessary for developing strong reading and writing skills in addition to explicit and systematic instruction a structured literacy approach shall provide multiple opportunities for students to practice a skill or strategy and require teachers to provide immediate immediate specific spe ific feedback to students and continuously monitor progress number two clarifying the definition of structured literacy instruction to mean in an evidence-based approach that emphasizes explicit and systematic instruction in the following components of literacy one phonological awareness two phonics decoding and spelling three fluency

112four vocabulary five comprehension and six written expression number three include an appropriation for dle dyslexia sensitive Universal screening four technical non-substantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency five defecting the date to July 1 2050 for the vote can I ask a question for doe so is this is when you said $750,000 that's to include all of the amendments that's required or is this over and above what that's what the assess with with everything that's been mentioned okay I don't want you to come back and said well you guys put all this now it's going to cost us more okay doesn't mean they won't but um and and now chair I would like to request that we do include in the committee report a statement regarding that um the DOE coordinate their different types

113of Assessments and testing that is currently going on with attention deficit and so forth is currently being assessed to the students so okay the recommendation is to pass Senate Bill 421 with amendments the chair is voting I I Vice chair votes I seny [Laughter] sorry it's been a long day for US senator K hi Senator Court hi recomendations not hi okay Senate Bill 1389 relating to therapy services expands the Scopes scopes of practice for occupational therapists physical therapists and speech pathologists to allow those professionals working for or contracted by the Department of Education to diagnose medical conditions that can be treated with their respective Services recommendation of the chair is to pass with these amendments and Technical non-substantive amendments for the purpose of clarity and consistency and defecting the date to July 1 2050 chair

114Vol ey okay uh Senate Bill 1389 recommendation is to pass with amendments the chair votes I Vice chair is voting no uh senator shimoto no Senator kuha hi Senator Dort no measure fails measure fails two eyes three nose Senate Bill 1548 relating to Department of Education procurement exempts thee purchases of local edible produce and packaged food products less than a certain amount from the electronic procurement system requirement requires at least three written quotes from do for do purchases of local edible produce and packaged food products between certain amounts requires at least two written quotes or for doe purchases of local edible produce and packaged food products between certain amounts for certain schools and Rural communities sunsets 6:30 2028 recommendation is to pass Senate Bill with oh oh I'm sorry yeah we did we decided to

115defer so Senate Bill 1548 recommendation is to defer NOS Senate Bill 494 relating to Charter Schools requires the department of budget and Finance in collaboration with the auditor to conduct a financial audit of each Charter School operating in the state requires a report to the leg legislature appropriates funds recommendation is to passed with amendments but defect the date to july1 205 chair votes I Senate Bill 494 to uh pass with amendments chair votes I any member present voting no any members with reservations hearing none five members all in the formative conditions adopted thank you Senate Bill 819 relating to educ education requires the Hawaii teacher standard board to establish an international teacher license for certain Visa holders establishes criteria for obtaining an international teacher license recommendation is to pass this amendment but include the testimony

116of the Attorney General and we are defecting the date to July 1 2015 chair Senate Bill 819 recommendation is to pass with amendments any member voting no any member reservations hearing none five members voting I recommendations adopted thank you that concludes our hearing