001good afternoon thank you for joining us for the committee of Education today is Friday January 31st it's 3:00 p.m. and we are in room 229 thank you for joining us and I would like to welcome students from kahill high school Milani High School kyua high school and McKinley High School please stand okay you each have to do your Alma are you ready no that's okay because farrington's not here yeah we have the best Alum model me too thank you for joining us we'll start with uh Senate Bill 1391 relating to education it appropriates funds to the Department of Education for Teacher requested classroom supplies for fiscal year 25 2025 and 2026 as well as 2026 and 2027 I need the testifiers list do we have a list of testif sorry okay so first to testify
002superintendent Keith Hayashi hello chair kadani Vice chair Kim Keith Hayashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on our testim testimony in support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to tesy thank you superintendent we have um osatou Jr is he here Aloha chair kadani and vice chair Kim my name is Sarah Milan Laughin on behalf of HSA for oui um really excited about this bill um because and we're in strong support as a teacher I've used donor chw since 2006 to get supplies from my classroom getting about $100,000 in supplies I'm really excited to see the department using this resource because the cool thing about this website is that teachers can request the supplies they want instead of having to price to the cheapest Supply so if I
003like Tao pencils I can get the pencils that my students use um my classroom could not run without the supplies that I've got from donor's Sho so I'm really excited to see this moving forward we've gotten everything from 3D printer to a TV to pencil sharpeners to food for students who need it um so really really important resource and please support thank you do you have anyone else here who wishes to testify on this measure come forward please good afternoon chair kadani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee Aloha my name is McKenzie Brammer and I'm currently a senior at Kalo High School I strongly support SB 1391 relating to education as a public school student I've witnessed many instances in which teachers have trouble buying supplies for their students by the middle of
004the year they have trouble keeping up with the constant purchase of basic supplies such as pencils and asking teachers to buy their own supplies not only becomes a burden on their own personal finances but also on the students they're teaching it is completely unfair for a students's quality of Education to be determined by how much money the teacher has to buy supplies passing this bill would encourage equity in our classroom Statewide providing all students with the supplies necessary to learn because of this I ask your support of SB 1391 thank you for your time thank you McKenzie anyone else here who wishes to testify please come forward good afternoon chair Vice chair and members of this committee I'm Felicia sry a senior this year I support Senate Bill 1391 as a student who attends a
005public school many of my teachers have to spend money they don't necessarily have in order to provide supplies for student students many teachers at my school don't have the funds to purchase simple office supplies such as manila folders for their classrooms teachers who have low salaries as it is shouldn't have to spend money out of pocket on supplies for their classroom and students supplies for classrooms and students are needed in order to help students learn in the best possible environment I ask you to support Senate Bill 1391 thank you for your time thank you Felicia is there anyone else here who wish to testify come forward please good afternoon chair Vice chair and members of this committee I'm Kate Reynolds and I'm a junior at col High School I support Senate Bill 1391 because teachers
006shouldn't have to spend their personal money on school supplies for their classrooms teachers already have a low salary and work hard to educate our current and upcoming Generations teachers should have the resources available to them at no cost to ensure students have a well-rounded education I hope you're I hope you support this bill to better our education thank you thank you Kate anyone else who wishes to testify on this matter thank you if there are no other testifiers is there anyone online okay no other testifiers on this matter let's move on to Senate Bill 1300 relating to school meals appropriates funds to the Department of Education for meal subsidies for students whose families are classified as asset limited income constrainted employed Alice household so for Senate Bill 1300 is there anyone here to testify on
007this measure superintendent oh oh I'm sorry it's okay sorry good afternoon chair kidani Vice chair Kim L Deputy superintendent of operations testifying on behalf of Department of Education the department stands in his written testimony in support of this measure thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you Dean Ed no executive director Charter School Commission in support osatou hi Sarah toiki on behalf of the ho Teachers Association and ouille I'd like to testify in support of this bill we know that students do better in school when they've had a full meal and while we can always say that well there's opportunities for applying for free and reduced lunch there's opportunities for them to go get a second job what we really want students to do is focus on being able to learn and being able
008to be fed well is really important for them to be able to learn well and here in Hawaii with the High Cost of Living we have a large gap of students that really cannot afford school lunch and so then they are eating that bag of chips or the the extra snacks that the teacher sneaks over to them that they requested on donor's choose when really they could be going straight to the cafeteria getting a full meal knowing without ever having to worry about being hungry that they are going to be fed at school and one less burden for every single student to have to worry about will mean everybody in Hawaii will have a better future because if they're not well educated then we don't have an educated Workforce so even though it might seem
009like it's just a one meal that we might be doing things that that could be I don't know almost giving away free bees it is setting up our future for our state thank you sir Daniela SP good afternoon chair Vice chair thank you so much for not just introducing this bill but for hearing it um Hawai apple seed wholeheartedly supports any measure that would expand access to free School meals and this bill would get us one step closer to that goal so thank you uh we would like to respectfully suggest some amendments which are itemized in are written testimony that we think will make the bill stronger um in addition to these technical amendments we'd like to strongly encourage that the committee reconsider limiting this essential benefit to only stud students qualified as Alice and
010this is for a few reasons as you may be aware Alice is a designation that takes into consideration not just household size and income but also household composition and expenditures so determining which students qualify using this complex methodology will require a tedious level of information gathering from the doe and it could feel invasive for families second income threshold isn't the only barrier to participation in the free meal program there's other challenges things like language barriers difficulty providing paperwork or fear of disclosing information to a government agency that result in a lot of children that are actually eligible for the free program not participating so we um again thank you so much for the opportunity to testify um and um support this bill wholeheartedly and thank you for considering our comments and amendments need deliberation of
011this Bill thank you for your testimony Judith Clark not present on Zoom chair thank you Lauren zerbo not here an huchi or Randall oh hi sorry I'm Alexis Chapman for for hfia in place of Floren zable I'm sorry what's your name Alexis Chapman for hfia Hawaii food industry Association please proceed uh good afternoon chair and vice chair thank you for hearing this measure um hfia is in support of School meals for all kakei the benefits of School meals are well documented and Monumental for our students and for our society as a whole and we would also support expansion of this bill um in any way to include more students for all students um and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you thank you Alexis Attorney General's office good afternoon chair kadani Vice chair Kim
012um and huchi from the Department as we noted in our testimony we're suggesting um an amendment to the bill either one um having the legislature expressly established by Statute a program for providing meal subsidies to students from Alice households um and that this provide for adequate standards provided by law as required by the state constitution and also providing the doe with the authority to adopt any necessary um administrative rules to administer the program alternatively we do note that the doe has administrative rules regarding um their lunch program perhaps it could be um the bill could be amended to state that the doe shall adopt rules or modify existing rules to provide the the meal subsidy to Alice households thank you for the opportunity I'll be available for questions thank you Nicole woo children's Action Network
013speaks not here beus dgo Democratic party of Havi not here Amy Miller president CEO for food bank not here Isa pson from Mai Food Bank not here Susan Emory green party of Hawaii David leak anyone here wishing to testify on this measure come forward please law chair Vice chair Nate Hicks with Hawaii Public Health Institute in support of this measure and also asking for amendments uh School meals are an incredibly important part of the day uh we make sure that public education is free for all because it's very important and so should the school meals and so we ask that uh we support not only just our Alice students but all students uh because similarly the paperwork required uh might miss many students who are dependent upon subsidies like these uh this is a very
014popular uh idea over 80% of Voters support free School meals for all students here in Hawaii and so uh you have the backing of the rest of the state to make this change as well uh eight states have already adopted free School meals for all and have had much success so we can follow their lead I appreciate the time Mahalo thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify in this measure members questions so right now uh reduced lunch free lunch shes or what what percentage average I know I have some of the highest schools with pre much but um the free is about 36% right now reduces about 8% and we projecting that the Alice group would be another 8% 8% of that so it would be like 52% total so in schools
015like mine where I have like 80% 90% reducing free lunch so Alice would be a very minute number for the rest of the school probably might be the rest of the school might be the rest of the school we just don't have a measurement for so we just extrapolating from data it's kind of our best guess at this point okay and you know it's not so much giving free lunch but of the lunches we already give and already people even when they pay for it how much of that go into the rubbish can uh quick question um that's part of what I think we're going to try and look at going forward is to collect data about they have waste but it's more like from the kitchen side I think what we're interested also is
016you know what are the kids actually eating what are the students eating and if you know one day the the amount of waste is high then we know that they didn't like that dish right if it's low then we know that they like that dish so we're not collecting that data right now but I think that's something we're by now you guys don't know that we've talked about this last session we talked about the expensive software that you folks went and bought for I don't know what $80,000 a year to be able to get a survey of what the kids like or dislike and we talked about having teachers just you know hand count how many of you like this but stuff that are being thrown away milk fruits apples oranges stuff like that I
017mean basic basic things that um so it's it's hard when we say we want to give everybody free lunch but if half of that lunches are going into the garbage can um um you know we have to do something about that because you know students just because you give them free lunch don't mean they going to eat it and they're going to be able to work in the classroom I agree right and if they're not going to eat it then we're defeating the purpose and if they run out and go to McDonald's or wherever else again we're defeating the whole purpose right of this whole free lunch so I hope people will focus in on the fact that you know just providing the free lunch is not necessarily going to mean they're going to eat
018it be nutritious and they're going to be able to to learn um totally agree how do we do that how do we get to how do we get there we're looking at improving the menu too um there's a whole effort going on to try and improve everything but if they don't like basic fruits if they don't like milk they don't want you know what I'm saying then what is it that we're going to have to what serve pizza and hamburgers every day and french fries I mean what is it that we can serve that the kids or let Jack in the Box R run your Resturant no I'm just kidding um so in the past I know that at the end of the cafeteria line you could put back things you didn't want like food
019that were apples oranges or milk but um what about other Foods I mean like are they served in the tray or are they served in containers now so if they don't want it they can I think it's depending what the dish is some are contained some they put in the plate and and have the has the department learn from the types of foods that are mostly given back that you change up the menu um if I mean Senor when we look at the uh the types of foods that um for example fruits I know when we went to uh on the continent we visited some schools uh they did have um table where you know they could put fruit back those fruit though have to be not sliced so for example if we slice oranges
020or we slice apples those aren't able to be put back on on onto the table for other students to to take um can I ask you a question then so for you to have the cafeteria workers buy the fruit slice the fruit is it better just to give the whole fruit uh it it depends I think what kind of fruit uh for example oranges um they don't like to peel it the peeling yes the peeling is difficult for for especially for the younger students so we slice so they can you know they can peel it this way and eat it um we are looking at the different types of foods we are also um I think Senator Kim had alluded to the survey we did do a survey in Leu Milan complex area uh to
021get data and feedback on what students um what's what kind of foods they like uh what they currently serve as well as perhaps what we don't serve what kinds of foods might might they be interested in and so we are taking that data we're working with um with our partners to um uh adjust our look at adjusting our menu I think what we've learned also is that's really important is as we're able to um work with our menu and also at the same time though meeting the requirements of U Federal compliance with USDA so that we ensure that our meals are reimbursable that that's really important so that's the balance I think that we're working on um healthy meals at locally sourced as much as possible we want what we want to move to but
022also meeting the um the uh the standards for USDA so that those meals are reimbursable thank you kind of follow off so the software that you folks put in how much does it cost us each year 60,000 80,000 I I can is that the um I I can get you the cost on the survey um I am familiar with the no it's a software that last we talked about this last year you folks do a serve you have you bought this it's yearly 80,000 60,000 can't remember it's around that amount just to survey and then they said oh it's other things but if that's costing us that much for you to the survey at three high schools I mean I think this money can go better used to actually going directly to the schools or
023directly to the to the menus or to the students again you know these kinds of we rely too much on on computers to give us an idea we can look in the in the garbage can to see what they're throwing away yes I I believe Senator when I um alluded to the survey that um we did with the the complex area in Central District um it might not be the same um software system that you're alluding to no but that software was to be able to survey so if you're even using something else than that then I have have even bigger question I believe the survey that you might be um alluding to is our nutral system but I can get back to you I want to be sure I get you the right answer
024so we'll get back to you on that yeah because you know there's a lot of cost that that folks employ that can go back into the schools and um that's very troubling uh also when we went on on these trips um to look others other jurisdictions they also had packaging where they would package the fruit they would package certain things into that the kids can then take with them if they don't want to eat it right then and there they can take it home or take it and eat it later on in the day so you know how are we being flexible because when you serve it when you played it then necessarily could take care with them so you bring up a definitely a good point um we want to be sure that as
025we as we do the visits and we work with and we see the different things happening on on the continent um we want to be sure that uh when we Implement in Hawaii that uh we're we are confident that we're following USDA guidelines so that um those meals are reimbursable so we are we are looking to explore some of the things that we've seen uh but again we want to just be sure that they follow the stringent law yeah us are following it and they are getting reimbursed on the mainland and it doesn't I don't think it takes rocket science for us to to look at what the is the USDA expects and you know what you put into a a bag to for the kids you know to eat so I hope that's not
026going to get another software another study that's we will we will follow up on that and get back to you Senator definitely thank you so superintendent the 11.7 million that the department is asking for is that for both breakfast and lunch yeah for the allice students yes but if the allice students is only Point what did you say what percent 8% 8% it's going to cost us 11.7 million for it no I think that's to um that's the reduced to take care of reduced and the group cuz they reduce they still pay so we're going to make it LSN below everybody doesn't have to pay I see so the reduces what is the reduced amount 20 cents right now how 20 cents 20 cents that they the student pay out of pocket so 20 cents
027for reduce bring us to 11.7 million plus the 8% 30 cents for breakfast 40 cents for lunch sorry I stand corrected okay well students you guys are watching this is so important that we know how much what we're spending where the money's going where your parents tax dollars are going and why sometimes we can't give you guys what you want because the expenditures are being spent for other things that may may not be needed thank you thank you CH go ahead this might be unrelated but I figure I'd ask now uh parents in my community are um concerned that in the elementary school they're not able to sit with their child um as example first grader who has a hard time opening her melt carton uh they were told that they're not able to sit
028with their child because there's Federal funding um with this lunches or with the breakfast does that I can get back to you on that Senator um specifically to the federal funding question I do know that um uh as a former Elementary principal sometimes you know we uh to be able to track who's on campus you know if there's many parents that want to uh come on to campus we want to just be sure that that you know everyone's accounted for um the other thing is that we do have very hardworking um cafeteria folks that you know AIDs that are in the cafeteria and lunch supervisors and uh they do help especially the younger children um opening their milk containers and such so yeah we we we appreciate the parents who want to support their children
029but we there we just need to be sure that we also take care of other issues that you know might arise thank you thank you I think it's also important that the uh principal and vice princip principles know who's on campus so yes thank you thank you um any other questions thank you is anyone from charter schools here no testimony from Charter Schools okay moving on Senate Bill 440 relating to education sorry this establishes the future Career and Technical education teacher scholarship program to be administered by the Department of Education to facilitate the Recruitment and Retention of Career and Technical teachers in Havi public schools and also appropriates funds to testify superintendent [Music] or good afternoon chair Vice chair and members of the committee I'm Tammy Chun Deputy superintendent testifying um in support of this
030bill and we're standing on a written testimony thank you Tammy James toyoko was that I'm sorry was that Doe testimony yes I'm reading your testimony it says you need to do more analysis to determine how this would be carried out and stuff so is it correct that you're in support or is that a different testimony um we support the intent of the bill we need more um in terms we probably we need additional resources to implement so we're still analyzing give a full yeah because you just say you support the support to what's here in your testimony thank you sure hello good afternoon Vice chair I mean chair gani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee my name is Thomas chock I'm with the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism on behalf of
031director James toyoka uh we uh inid stand on our testimony as submitted with comments and I'm available for questions M just your testimony in support or just comments tell us what your comments are yeah sure uh let's see there are a handful of things that we feel like could strengthen the the the bill um we definitely are in support of the intention of the bill uh we do feel like um in our efforts uh with Workforce Development especially uh the the front end of the PIP line is the CTE programs in the doe right and uh what we see is uh opportunity to add uh elements to the bill such as um in uh section 302 a-a um perhaps including um uh externships for the participants of this program so uh where Educators can uh
032get opportunities of it's a work-based learning approach where the teachers get actual um work experience in the area that they're they're getting their CTE training on um similar to that uh in the same section we uh felt like uh it would be helpful to have mentorship or professional development um spelled out more clearly in the in the bill um we also felt like in uh in the same section 302 A- a um expanding the eligibility for the participants to beyond the University of Hawaii um uh those who are pursuing an education degree at the University of Hawaii um perhaps to other um local colleges such as hpu um shamad BYU Hawaii um and then also to include uh you know locals who leave the leave Hawaii to uh pursue their education degree elsewhere um it
033would be uh beneficial for us if we could tap we we could expand the eligibility uh to those people as well um see oh uh reporting in section 302 a-b we felt like if there was some aspect of a reporting mechanism that was mentioned uh in the bill uh so reporting on things like how many recipients uh uh received well that's the definition of recipient right how many recipients retention rates after the 5-year commitment and then uh what was the placement rates and high need uh CTE Fields uh so some kind of tracking mechanism uh just to to be able to track data and then uh lastly um dbed has uh prioritized uh five uh uh five uh I guess industries that align with the CTE Pathways um those five uh that dbet has identified
034include Advanced manufacturing Healthcare uh clean energy or energy and the creative Industries in agriculture and so uh we feel like it'll be helpful to prioritize uh those CTE pathway teachers um if if can to um to be able to align more with uh debed strategy for economic development and economic diversification good points but have you met with the to discuss all these no we haven't well it doesn't need to take a bill for you guys to do correct thank you questions thank you yeah anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure um I will be sure that we send it to the committee after the hearing have oh you have it okay um I apologize uh chair Vice chair member and huchi from the Department of the Attorney General um on 440 um it
035states that the scholarship recipients must teach Career and Technical education in the Hawaii public school system for at least 5 years immediately following the completion of the state approved teacher education program um what we are suggesting is that there be a requirement that the scholarship recipient also um obtain a teaching license in order to teach in the public school system we've provided suggested um a suggested amendment in our testimony thank you I'll be available for question questions thank you I do questions superintendent questions um yeah is is um budget and finance here anybody from budget and finance okay superintendent then I guess okay I certainly agree with uh technical education for a teacher scholarship but this also talks about a special fund and if you look at what BNF says As a matter of General
036policy um this fund does not meet the requirements in section 37- 52-3 HRS so special fund should serve a need is demonstrated by purpose scope and explanation of why the program cannot be implemented successfully under the general fund appropriation process reflect a clear Nexus between the benefits sought and charges made upon the users of beneficiaries or a clear link between the programs and sources provides appropriate means of financing for the activity and right now it's only General funds or appropriation from the legislature demonstrate the capacity to be financially self- sustaining so I don't think this meets that requirement right I mean that's the whole Crux of this bill is to have this fund to be able to pay for the scholarships right so how do how do this fund become self- sustaining Senator just we
037appreciate the opportunity for scholarship funds for to build up our special to build up our Career and Technical education teacher Workforce but um the mechanisms by which but this was not a bill from a Department of Education bill but you are in support of it so if you want come in support of it then you got to help us because again it's not worth only the money but how are you going to be self- sustained because special funds you have to have specific requirements by law and if it's not then we're just going to have another fund sitting there then then we're going to sweep at some point because it's not going to be usable it's not going to have enough funding once the state funding runs out right thank you Senator um we do
038support the intent of the bill that to support our uh CTE teachers uh we definitely will reach out to budget and finance and um talk with them to see what the next steps are special funds we've just had too many special funds out there that is not does not report to these things and that's why we've done away with many of them but then we keep getting new requests for new special funds and no way to keep funding it so I just hoping folks look at that as you look at these bills going forward we'll reach out to BNF thank you um superintendent also um does the de have in mind any certain CTE programs um I specific programs that you are wanting to I I believe the CT programs we're looking at in general
039um supporting teachers in Beth I think depending on the level of funding if uh we would prioritize some Pathways based on economic development um plans of the State uh if the funding was limited okay thank you the uh attorney general is also commenting that we should insert in the bill to obtain uh htsb license as a requirement in addition to teaching five years you guys have comments on that after receiving the scholarship um I I believe currently um all of our teachers work towards um lure I I I do know that um uh in in some instances uh we we um in individuals that come from industry and um may may have some difficulty in in pursuing that but we'll work with the standards Bo 200 on okay and you might want to reach out
040to the AG to yes definitely thank you thank you [Music] Senators okay we are on Senate Bill 531 relating to education Pro Prov establishes Provisions for the storage and maintenance of a stock supply of Bron Bronco dilators at schools this is a Senate Bill 531 for asthma Administration superintendent comments comments good afternoon Cher hedani um Vice chair Kim and members of the committee I'm Heidi Armstrong Department of Education and we stand on our written testimony and our comments are in our testimony in support or we we support the bill with the um changes that we've included um in our testimony so I guess for the audience at home listening I think um maybe if you could um answer some questions like is this supposed to will this help your absentee ISM rate yes so so
041currently um we don't have a supply of the Bronco dilators on our school campuses and we know that asthma um whether it's diagnosed or not is very prevalent among our children and so this would equip all of the schools to have that Supply on their campus um and in the event there was an incident that warranted the distribution of that medication there um would be um there could be the opportunity for staff on Camp campus to be able to administer that medication it also allows the school um the bill would allow the school to receive that medication to stock um through a prescription from a physician and the physician would then prescribe the medicine to the school so the school could have that on hand thank you and I'm not sure if you're able to
042answer this question or if this is a Department of Health question but is there um um uh shelf life for these medications there is and to tell you the shelf life um Ben um Ben kolinsky is from our school health section um and he can answer the health questions chair Vice chair and members of the committee Ben Linsky with the student support uh Branch um the range I can't speak exactly to but generally there's a a few years is is typical for most medications and the uh when we're talking about Bronco diors we're generally speaking about inhalers uh and alol orol srate which is mentioned as an example within in the bill so that's also clarified that's the most common uh type of pharmaceutical that we're talking about and so those generally have uh you
043know several years of uh of use and and the amount of doses in an inhaler is generally 200 there are some that have less but most of the time it's 200 doses so that's plenty uh for the the type of use as we wouldn't expect a school to exhaust that uh within those few years um so whose responsibility would would it be to make sure that um it's not expired and then I guess the um the responsibility of of the doe or the school as far as not having you know the supply on hand and something happens to a child right and we do have in the bill um let me read it I could I could maybe answer just in in the general sense that there is an existence of this issue uh for
044schools currently uh because we do accept medication prescribe to individual students that have the appropriate uh paperwork and uh diagnosis uh provider that provides that prescription and those medications have expirations that we have to monitor as well things like the nxone um for opioid overdose that's kept in schools also has an expiration um and so there are uh routines for managing that's that the nature of that there's also Provisions in the the bill that talk about how those guidelines are put together correct and then for the the protection um for the school we have added um on page four or no I'm sorry page seven line two um to we we're suggesting to add the administrator of stock Bronco dilator by authorized employees or agents pursuant to this section shall not require or imply any
045diagnosis or be interpreted as the practice of medicine nursing or other licensed professional um activity but what happens if a child you it cuz you said something about that they had a prescription or they weren't diagnos having asthma that you think they're having an episode you give them a one of these inhalers and something happens to them and so is the liability on the school through through the training for the um volunteer who volunteers to administer this this medication so volunteers to give the medication certified person correct that worries me and right now if a child has an asthma attack on on the school grounds the own and does not have an inhaler um if they've been diagnosed or if they have an asthma attack and they don't H they don't have any medication the
046school has nothing um on hand to help support the child until 911 comes so do you how many of these of the medication would you have to have on hand be sure that you're equipped for the Bronco dilator specifically uh the schools would with this bill have the option to carry a Bronco dilator an inhaler and that would provide the school with that medication there's not a restriction on how many a larger campus May for example under this have you know option for one use medication um spacers used uh between the device the spray device that is the inhaler and um the recipient the child and that's a single use but the inhaler itself can be used uh up to 100 to 200 doses depending on the product so you would only let the child
047use it for that time and you would take back the the actual medication portion yeah reused perhaps to clarify the uh use of the medication is in the uh event of a a serious episode that is also requiring um additional supports and services so there is a generally calls to Emergency Medical Services during a respiratory emergency that's a serious um approval or from the parents to do this could answer that and so again this overall this this bill has uh many layers and so there's you know coverage in in sort of addressing liability issues and uh for the um interest of uh notifying parents providing the uh protocol to the public and notifying the community um the school Community where that's held and that it would be uh used in a potential respiratory emergency is
048a annual notification requirement and many of these ideas do exist in other I guess my question really is are the parents supposed to notify the schools that the child has this issue and they approve will be intervening when the child is or you take it upon yourself to see a child in distress and do the medication well the the parents are notified that the school does have these in on hand um for a child who's already diagnosed we do have an additional process and create a um action plan for that child specific to his Med his or her medical need and the um School Shaw and other school personal have that on file so for the students who are already diagnosed and um we we have um student support team meetings with the parent and
049come up with the plan um to address the child's need should an attack um occur on campus but you say you notify the parents that you have it but do they have to respond that it's okay for you to use it on your child or you use it if appropriate right I would I would just say based on what the bill says uh that would be uh a implied consent of a a person experiencing a life-threatening emergency and that's the you know rationale I understand for uh Good Samaritan visions and measures like this and epinephrine in in public settings in general they're all structured in similar ways so that helps to to answer your question directly on page three line 16 of the bill um number four it does say the the wording is inform
050parents or Guardians about the potential use of a Bronco dilator in a respiratory emergency okay questions yeah um how how many types of attacks or emergencies type illnesses are there that students have could you clarify that the the symptoms or the um definition of attack what kind of Health emergencies could occur that you are not you don't have the medication or don't have stuff for because right now it's the bronchitis inhalers um I know we did op but what else is out there that okay what I'm driving at is you know schools are become and trust me I'm not trying to sound like I am I'm not um compassionate to all of this stuff going on but at some point you cannot cover every single possible and if you don't at some point we're going
051to be liable because well why didn't you you you provided inhalers but you didn't provide I don't know eye drops to to my child or you didn't provide this the school didn't provide that and then you're using volunteers and then there's a thing of liability so I'm just wondering at what point do you know and then parents then will then de well I don't need I forget the the bronchitis or I forget whatever the school has this you know it's okay but at what point where where does it where does it end this this bill supports um would support a child having an attack um who doesn't have medication prior to 911 coming and there few and far between they're they're few and far between um it's not a common occurrence um but it does
052happen yeah so how much how many of these inhalers you have to have how long is it going to yeah I'm saying there's a lot of issues who's going to give it and then if doesn't happen then somebody becomes viable and then what is the next what is the next bill for the we've got to cover that we didn't cover like epilepsy I me I don't know I don't know all the different childhood type of things that could happen and certainly I mean can we cover them all can you can you get medication to have them all and Stu do we have examples of currently what the schools have in supply for medical needs of students current for any prescription medicine right now it all comes from the child's family the the parent would notify
053the CH the school that my child needs insulin my child has Caesar medication and provide it to you folks and so we have we have an action plan um for the child and that plan describes what medication to give and when and by whom okay so so in this case then the parents would Supply have a supply on hand to give you in case it happens to their child right that requires them to have um good access to healthare timely access to health care and insurance coverage for medications that also takes into account that a school may need a different you're saying the school is now going to be into providing health care and medication for those who don't have it is that what you're saying because um medical emergencies can occur for children and
054then providing Health Care on a regular basis I mean we have to decide what what it is we're going to provide because you don't have unlimited funds and you don't have unlimited liability so understood protections so has I didn't read the AG's opinion but is the AG here CH before you leave I think uh what Vice chair I just want to tag team off of that with regards to is there actual and how many cases of children that experience maybe an asthma attack that necessarily have um the inhaler or medication on hand so is this it's not a common occurrence but it does occur and the current procedure when that happens is the school will call 911 and when 911 arrives um the paramedics will address the situation so do you have a comment on
055this request because it's it's um involving just one type of illness or medication that's being required and I mean are we setting a precedent I think it's possible it could be I would say focusing on the testimony that we submitted on this bill um our concern was that the bill is very expansive in terms of its definition of school it refers to it defines a school as any daycare center Child Care Facility Head Start program preschool kindergarten or Elementary or secondary school public or private including any special school for children in the state many of those are um entities over which the Department of Education doesn't have any jurisdiction and so our um concern because the bill on page one at lines 9 through 11 stat that the Department of Education in collaboration with the
056Department of Health shall develop a protocol regarding the storage and usage of a stock of Supply excuse me stock supply of bronco dilators and sets forth various parameters but it would be difficult for the doe to be able to develop and Implement a protocol for and applicable to entities over which they don't have any jurisdiction that was um what our testimony commented on but um I do see the concerns that are raised in the discussion that you just had with the Department thank you for the question okay are there further testimony on this item there's several of us please come forward Hello chani by Shar Kim uh members of the committee he president and also watching uh I'm Pedro har executive director of the American Lung Association uh you have my written testimony we're in
057full support I just wanted to point out that there's 24 states that have passed similar legislation um already so we have a opportunity to be able to apply those models for here in Hawaii there are cases where states did not adopt these policies where children have died waiting for emergency services uh when uh that has uh it would have been easily resolved uh by the administration of this medication that that uh according to many of the medical um industry associations um should be an over-the-counter medication at this point because it its efficacy has been proven so safe um we also wanted to uh point out that the so the way that this policy is built in order to be able to to allow the flexibility for Department of Education is that it's not a mandate
058to to create but it allows uh the entities to be able to create this if they if they so choose to right now they don't have the ability to do that um as it currently is but it is not a mandate um this is also part developing these type of policies are part of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention asthma friendly policies that they recommend that all school districts adopt um at the point I see my time is up so I'll be available for questions thank you so much thank you for the clarification Laura reart good afternoon chair Vice chair uh members of the committee my name is Laura rikar I'm here representing Hawaii State Center for Nursing and I'm also here representing the uh Hawaii uh School of Nursing uh is as it
059relates to the Hawaii state Center for Nursing we uh stand in our written testimony um in support of this measure and I welcome any comments and if I may as it relates to the School of Nursing and uh dental hygiene of which the center is within but um for the School of Nursing they are um one of the collaborators along with the doe for the hoi Kiki program um and they have been embedded within schools this Hawaii K has been embedded within schools for the past 10 years but there currently is not a school nurse for every school and so when there are emergency emergencies like this whereas there is safe and effective treatment that's available that is you know parents can give this medication to children so it's available for Lay people um it's
060safe and appropriate uh it was seen as a safe and appropriate response that would lower the risk and increase the safety of children of school who just have normal health events but sometimes are at school and not with their parents thank you questions thank you next to testify Ean not here testifying for Hawaii Association for justice and hori oh okay anyone else wishing to testify we have some mbers on Zoom go ahead K Vice Kim and members of the committee I am Gloria Fernandez with Department of Health I'm sorry didn't hear your name Gloria Fernandez with the Department of Health forgive me I my throat is really dry um and offering um comments on this on this bill I'm with the communicable disease and public health nursing Division and we're providing the following testimony on
061on behalf of the department um so this bill will allow for students that do not have access to a Bronco dilator during the school day through an emergency action plan or approval to sorry um approval that allows them to self carry their medications to be able to receive the medication when an emergency arises other updates in this measure will Aid in the ability for students to safely en family receive prescribed and approved medications improving their overall health and ability to remain in school the department of health will work collabora with the ha Department of Education for these protocols should the schools um want to be able to offer this and we will also work with any of the Community Partners to implement once and if enacted thank you for this opportunity to testify any questions
062questions by thank you we also have Jeremy crore not present on Doom chair thank you that's all the testimony that members questions otherwise moving on um Senate Bill 533 relating to education appropriate funds to Department of Education to evaluate School needs to mitigate the impact of the planned Public Safety power shut off program this chair Vice chair members of the committee Tammy Chun Deputy superintendent for the Department of Education the Department of Education supports this bill this is a bill regarding uh Power safety Public Safety power shut off it's the hawani electric response to preemptively shut off the power in certain cases there are currently 15 schools on the PSPs list and the the experience in California in terms of implementing a SPS indicates the average shutdown is 48 hours and so for schools we
063have come up with a plan to keep schools open as um during the power safety shut off when the power is out as long as conditions are otherwise safe uh we are asking for this appropriation to be able to do um actions to prepare schools to be able to continue to be open while um while the power is out and the two main things schools need uh assistance with are one would be power particularly for the cafeteria to be able to continue to serve meals and provide a place where students who need electricity or power for their assisted devices such as our medically fragile students would be able to to um congregate and then second would be for shelf stap meals so students could eat dur the power shut off I'm happy to answer questions
064thank you thank you on Zoom not present on Zoom chair anyone else who are wishing to testify this measure Angela Aloha Angela Melody young testifying on behalf of Roar cares in strong support um Ro cares Rescue of animal right Community advocacy research Education Services a Grassroots movement heard it's a small team from our church so um I'm in strong support without assuming is it a locally owned business because infrastructure utilities for water and sewer is controlled by the County's office but it does say in the introduction a local investor owned Electric utilities um company uh planned a public safety power shut off program so I'm in strong support uh especially the with the underlying issues of Maui Wildfire recovery events highlighting the need for emergency procedures strategies and routines for imple implementation during emergency response
065to set a new standard of operation for schools um because 15 department of education schools and a charter school were identified as vulnerable to plan Public Safety um routines um and I think it's critically important to have a back up Solutions um so in strong support thank you memb questions ahead good afternoon chair Vice chair members of the committee my name is James Abraham I'm testifying on behalf of Hawaii Electric in support of this bill uh we'll stand on our written testimony that we submitted to the committee and I'm available for any questions what was your name again uh James Abraham thank you members [Music] questions thank you any further testimony thank you recess resuming the committee we are on this is the last just did so the next one will be 747 747 okay
066so Senate Bill 747 relating to the Board of Education this establishes an audit office with within the Board of Education to audit operations and expenditures of the Department of Education exempts positions within the audit office from Civil Service Law requires annual reports to the legislature establishes six full-time equivalent positions within the audit office and appropriate funds to testify on this measure ucation board Board of Education happy Aloha Friday chair kidani Vice chair Kim and Senator I know we're uh at the end of calendar so I'll try and keep it brief uh capson poy executive director of the board uh and I did want to convey uh the regrets of our legislative ad hoc committee who would usually be here with you today some of them are ill or away uh and just very briefly the
067board does stand on its written testimony supporting the intent of the measure uh and we do recognize of course the value of accountability and transparency what what is it that you have concerns about uh well Senator I do think we need to figure out um some of the cost uh breakdowns and how we would figure out the staff and I think uh maybe you know trying to maybe work with some of the other auditing functions uh or auditing offices including Office of the auditor uh on how they go about doing that I I do want to make sure I say auditing is a highly specialized skill far beyond the current capacity of the boards pretty small staff else anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure so in reading this measure it talks about
068putting an audit that operate independently which I certainly support but who who actually would really guide them as to what things they're going to audit for who oversees this I um board and audit office I I'll just say that that would likely be the board uh and the board would perhaps establish a committee but I also would say that um that's probably for either the board uh the ad hoc Committee of the board uh to decide or the board through board action to decide how they want to structure that relationship with the auditor and it is yes very clear in the bill that it's meant to be very independent and I think the way we read that is is as reporting directly to the board without much interference from others okay um I question this
069certainly I'm for all for as you know um for transparency and accountability but I know that we put in an audit committee for the border of regions and it's the board of regions that decides what gets audited and if they don't want something audited it doesn't go to the committee and so there's a push and pull and a pullback so it's like okay operate independently but if they're still part of the board then is it really going to be independent and so I mean I'm not sure how it's going to work because it certainly hasn't work with the the board of regions yes I I I understand your concern and acknowledge that I I would say that I really wouldn't want to venture to guess how that would all work we'd probably have to figure
070out how we would set it up and uh do it in the best way and trying to uh alleviate some of those concerns and the cost to do this yes and the cost to do it so right now does a does the board have the ability to audit not currently within the board staff there uh right but you folks can can't order audits right yes the I I actually can't remember when the last time that was but I but I would say as far as a very specialized audit um I can actually get back to you on the the um specifics on that there there in lies the reason why this is probably surfacing because if the board is not exercising its ability to hold accountable and to look at certain things and then and
071then have audits done and yes it's going to cost money this is going to cost money then this is why you know when you folks see these bills is why it's happening because perhaps you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing right thank thank you for that feedback Senator I did just want to clarify I don't want you to think that no audits are being done there are a lot of annual audits for example that are done outside of the annual a that's what this ising because this is more about performance and management audits other than the perun audits that you have to perform each year but this goes beyond that any other questions okay I don't have reconvening the committee on education the committee members have conferred and we are looking at passing
072out with amendments Senate Bill 1331 with Technical and nonsubstance 1391 1391 pass with amendments with Technical and non-substantive amendments blanket out the appropriation amount and we will note in the committee report that 3 million is requested by the Department of Education and defecting the date to July 1st 2015 okay recommendation is to pass with Amendment chair kadani I Vice chair side Senator Hashimoto hi Senator p is excused Senator de I Four Eyes one excuse recommendations adopted thank you next item Senate Bill 1300 relating to school meals recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments and the okay so Senate Bill 1300 uh we're going to include the we're going to pass with amendments which would include the testimony of the Attorney General's office to insert a section that requires the Department of Education to
073adopt administrative rules to effectuate the purpose of this bill we will blank out appropriation amounts and note in the committee report that 11.7 million is requested in the department of education's testimony and defecting the date to July 1 2015 Senate Bill four I'm sorry okay recommendation is to amend Senate Bill 1300 chair V Vice chair V Senator Hashimoto Senator K's excuse Senator I Four Eyes one excuse recommendations adopted thank you Senate Bill 440 relating to education recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments will include the Attorney General's testimony which requires um ho teacher Standards Board license as a requirement Technical and non-substantive amendments blank out appropriation amount and note in the committee report that 600,000 is requested by the Department of Education and also defecting the date to July 1st members questions recation
074is to pass with am pass am any members voting with reservation any members voting no if not four members present voting I one excuse Madam chair thank you moving on to Senate Bill 531 recommendation of the chairs to defer this measure indefinitely Senate bill 533 appropriates funds to doe to evaluate School needs to mitigate impact of planned Public Safety power shut off program recommendation of the chairs pass with amendments blank out the appropriation amount and note in the committee report that 1 million is requested by the Department of Education and defect the date to July 1st 2050 questions members recommendations to pass with amendments let it Bill 533 any members voting no any members voting with reservations if not four members in affirmative one member excused recommendations adopted thank you and a final bill Senate
075Bill 747 relating to the Board of Education establishes an audit office within the Board of Education to audit operations and expenditures of the Department of Education exempts positions within the audit office from Civil Service Law requires annual reports recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments including Technical and non-substantive amendments blank out the appropriation amount and note in the committee report that 575,000 is requested by the Department of Education and defect the date to July 1st 20150 chairman I okay recommendation uh to amend Senate Bill 747 any member voting no any M vo reservations hearing none four members president will never excuse recommendations thank you and that concludes the meeting [Applause]