001[Music] good afternoon welcome to the Joint hearing of the committee on education and committee on labor and Technology first up is Senate Bill 2475 relating to education establishes a harm to students registry for all pre kindergarten through grade 12 institutions operating in the state to be administered by the Department of Education requires schools to complete any investigation into employees who have pending allegations of harming students regardless of employment status requir schools to consult with the harm to students registry before authorizing prospective employees or volunteers to interact with students requires schools to share information on ongoing or or concluded investigations of infliction of harm to a student when requested by another institution establishes an appeal process for individuals who request removal from the harm to students registry requires the Hawaii teacher Standards Board to revoke the
002licenses of certain individuals who have resigned or retired in lie of termination establishes qualified immunity for employers who provide good faith information or opinion on a current or former employees job performance and first testify superintendent Hayashi please Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim chair aino Vice chair moraki members of the committee Keith aashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure safeguarding the health safety and well-being of our students is of highest priority this bill would create a harm to students registry to prevent individuals who harm children from being employed or volunteering in our schools it would also allow for Effective cross sharing of information between public and private educational institutions regarding any ongoing or concluded investigations of upon request this will
003help strengthen the systems in place so that we can further protect our students from these offenders thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you superintendent MERS questions any question Senator so who who in the doe is going to track um of these cases who who in a doe is going to track the cases uh we would thank you for the question Senator we would be working within the department within our office of uh talent management and the complex are superintendent to monitor um the system how many license have been uh is revoked hdbb revoke uh last year I'm how much do we have how much do we have of these licenses being revoked last year um the LI licenses being revoked actually would be uh within the purview of the H teacher Standards Board
004um so I I can get that information for you the reason the reason why asking you I mean I understand the reason of the bill but you know the problem I have is that in the previous past yeah one person do an assault at one school and they later on they don't say nothing and they pop up at the out of school and then that been happening for a while already you know so how is this going to really prevent this from happening well thank you very much senator for the question we we are very um hopeful that by passing this bill and providing the opportunity for Public School charter school our private school institutions to be able to communicate with each other uh to be able to keep a system of registry for those
005very individuals that you're um you're speaking of we'll be able will we will be able to communicate and share that information to ensure that these perpetrators um uh do not move from one system to to another and and um teach our students yeah just a followup the only reason why I say this is because I I know it happened to one of my schools in a district I'm not going to say but there was from another District but because they was doing elementary schools or younger kids they decided to move them to the high school middle school area I not going to say which one and they continue working for the doe because of their um was told is to keep away from uh children I mean I just kind of it just kind of
006was kind of crazy when I heard that I was um very um disappointed so I I just like to know how effective this is we're going to make a bill um how effective the enforcement of this bill will come after we do them because last thing we know is coaches you bear with me coaches um a lot of the coaches that we know um going forward they call it grooming yeah I don't if that's part of your um look looking into of complaints of how coaches groom uh their players into thinking that they're um something relationship or not and some of them you know really disgust me where to the child who still was going school where waed to the person he or her turned 18 and then had sexual relationship with him even though
007he was a coach and the person was a student and that was the technicality that they got away and because her age so what I would want to see in here as long as you're an enroll student no matter what age should cover the student period um yeah thank you Senator um the intent of this bill is to address the very issue that that you're talking about to support our students and um if um maybe we can talk offline later uh that we we can you can share with me some of the issues that are will thank you thank you chair thank you further questions members thank you super AR cross Aloha chairs Vice chairs and members of the committee I'm yukoo across director of the executive office on early learning we stand on our
008written testimony and support of this measure with a request for the director of the executive office on early learning be included in the temporary panel referenced on page 4 lines 13 to 18 I'm available to answer any questions you might have and thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you members questions thank you uh Attorney General's office good afternoon chairs kidani and aino vice chairs Kim and Marie walki and Senator favella and huchi from the Department of the Attorney General um as we noted in our testimony I think the first thing we want wanted to point out is that we do see the difference in this registry um contemplated in this bill and the sex offender registry for this registry it would only require listing um after findings have been made by an by
009an educational institution after an investigation not a criminal conviction in court um in our testimony we've also suggested some um additional uh revision such as um adding a reference to chapter in order to make the registry applicable to pre kindergarten if that's the legislature's intent um removing the reference to chapter 350 which um relates to child abuse and is under the purview of the Department of Human Services um in new subsection a replacing the term individuals with employee to make it clear that the registry would apply to employees of educational institutions and not to all individuals um adding in some language that would avoid potential fura violations um as well as uh a suggestion to exempt the registry and the employment documents from non-governmental educational inst institutions from the uniform information Practices Act um again
010there's a lot in our testimony I'm available for questions thank you and members questions um yes and so we will be working with thank you [Music] next to testify Felicia V lus executive director white teacher standard board good afternoon chairs Vice chairs committee members my name is Felicia vovos I'm the executive director for the Hawaii teacher Standards Board speaking on behalf of the board uh htsb supports the efforts to establish this harm for students registry however the board is concerned about the criter ior for someone to be put on this registry the board doesn't want to be premature and place an employee on the registry until there's a final disposition or disciplinary action taken following the completion of an investigation and just to add some additional information when a license is an action is taken
011on a license discipling action is taken on a license we do put it on our website it is advertised after has gone through the process of the investigation the board hears it they have time to to consult an attorney so on and so forth there is a process in place once a action has been taken on a license it is publicly put onto our website it is also in um inputed into the NASDAQ clearing house that's a national Clearing House that we're a part of all 50 states and jurisdictions where if a license is sanctioned in a different state or jurisdiction it goes into a clearing house and then it's reported if they have a license in our state and we take action so I'm available for any questions you guys may have thank you
012thank you thank you members questions yeah just a followup question the same thing that I asked how much um of this people was putting on your website last year uh last year we had 33 revocations um I don't have it categorized yet but some could be uh fraudulent documents misconduct and another state so I can get that if you want it no just know thank you thank you oh so so are you saying that this this bill is redundant or is there something in this bill that we should have that your National Registry does not have so that we could ensure protections for our kids if they want to start it yeah thank you um from prek if we can all get together because we may not have the prek information as well and come
013with that registry that's fine under the guidance of the AG's office to make sure it's following the process the due process of a revocation or some kind of sanction on a license or permit happy to be involved in that as well okay yeah thank you J thank you thank you thank you next to testify Phil boser good afternoon chair kadani Vice chair Kim U Vice chair of maruki my name is Philip bosard I'm the uh executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools and the Hawaii Council of private schools um stand most on our testimony uh here we think this is an extremely important bill um and that uh there's currently 114 private schools and it's uh and if you consider not just the teachers that are affected by the Standards Board but all
014of the staff of both the public and the private and the charter schools I'm sure it's like 50 plus thousand uh persons that are moving around every year and because uh There is almost always a shortage of teachers in both the public and the private schools um schools are often very anxious to get anybody they can to do the work and so it's often since I I will say as I said My Testimony it's often the case that a school when it discovers the sexual abuse or the harm to the student they don't want to tarnish their reputation so they just say be nice just leave we won't say anything um and then that person just hops over to the next school and which and that school is happy to get an experienced person so
015um we very much in favor of seeing this bill move forward and the cooperation as superintendent aashi mentioned the cooperation and communication that the registry would provide among all of the schools uh public private Charter I think is the key component in this happy to answer any questions thank you that was very good testimony appreciate it members questions thank you Phil thanks next to testify Michael laam Aloha chairs and vice chairs I'm Mike leam president of puno school and the chair of the governance Committee of the white Association of Independent Schools um I'll Stand to my written testimony I'm strongly in favor of of the proposed legislation uh for several reasons um I think when parents uh enroll students at our schools they are entrusting us with the welfare of their children uh it is
016our responsibility to do everything we can to ensure their safety Uh current legal Provisions I think are inadequate uh to address the problem we're looking at today uh it's very easy for people who are dismissed for sexual misconduct to move from one institution to another the fact is research shows that many of the perpetrators are in fact serial perpetrators which makes the condition all the more serious uh and worth worth considering uh because of the risk of defamation or the fear of defamation schools oftentimes don't share information with each other they don't issue necessary warnings to each other many settlements are often confidential as well which allows people to move to additional institutions or they may resign prior to the completion of an investigation which is an existing loophole that also has to be closed
017uh so the bill creates a registry which would require that hiring officers at Independent Schools at public schools and at Charter Schools uh consult that registry to determine whether or not that individual is listed if the person is listed they cannot hire that person and the objective here is to do as Senator Vella said to ensure uh that these people have no further contact with students uh and to ensure that that is is in place um I really appreciate the careful reading of the bill provided by the Attorney General's office I'm quite confident that the concerns that they raise are ones that we can address uh through uh getting the right legal language together uh certainly I would agree that there must be a finding uh certainly I'd agree that there must be an investigation
018the bill provides an approach for due process uh I think we can come up with an approach that would satisfy all parties um I think licensing is an important part of this but I would argue that the revocation of license really only applies to teachers and to teachers within the doe many Independent School teachers do not do not have licenses they're not required to be licensed and of course many other employees and staff are not licensed either and so we need a broader approach that ensures that anybody who is in contact with with our students on a regular basis uh is covered by the provisions of the bill I'm happy to respond to any questions that you may have thank you Michael um members questions thank you for your testimony very important is there anyone
019else wishing to testify on this matter thank you um can I call Felicia I'm sorry I have a question for yes mind would Hawaii teacher Standards Board recommend add adding additional language similar to that in Senate Bill 3089 as I would like to have both vehicles pass out of this committee knowing that Senate Bill 2475 is more comprehensive this is an important issue preventing ouri from sexually abused sexually being abused the language in Senate Bill 3089 would be added to this Senate Bill 2475 measure and um just wanted to know your thoughts on that yeah we just want to make sure that the investigation is complete or the process is complete before the board takes any action revocation on the license the board does not want to be sued for taking away a license or
020adding a sanction to a license without going through the entire process so yes thank you members further questions I I have one the Attorney General just for clarifications we heard of that this bill seems to apply to only the teachers but as I read it employees all employees contractors are volunteers is that correct or who who is covered under this right well I think the bill um identifies employee on page six as all employees contractors and volunteers just teachers right right this under this definition okay thank you thank you thank you and just to add um you know the intent of this committee is to pass up this measure so we probably need to work with you a little bit more to get some of the language down path sure thank you and there further
021questions thank you moving on to Senate Bill 3089 relating to education requires that licensed teachers have their license rebok by the Hawaii teacher standard board if the teacher is resigning or retiring during the pendency of any investigation into allegations of sexual assault sexual harassment or other physical abuse of a student which complement the previous Bill to testify do I have a testim sorry superintendent please Aloha chairs Vice chairs members of the committee Kei aashi superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure similar to the previous bill this measure will help to protect our students under this measure a teacher who elects to resign or retire while being investigated for allegations of sexual assault sexual harassment or other physical abuse of a student
022would be considered terminated and their teaching license would be revoked this would result in their name going on a national list of teachers whose licenses have been revoked helping ensure that they are not eligible to teach in another school or state thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you superintendent members questions I I a question so I understand that part but if they are I gu I'm use the word J but let's just say allegations is founded what is the chances of them so this is the thing about this right here they can retire or they can leave pending years and years of whatever uh um depending on how long the average you know does take their investigation how long usually one of these uh investigation St um Aver thank you for the question
023Senator um the the investigations we would like to um ensure that investigations are conducted in in the most expeditious manner uh it it does vary though depending sometimes on availability of witnesses and such so um some investigations may take months um to get it to get it finished and completed um and render a decision and others may take a little longer than that so so we just having that why why are we not adding to this if there found guilty they lose their retirement their pension and all of that because we taxpayers is going to have to pay for what this person had done to one child maybe didn't have a doom and got caught with 10 Childs before that but they got C caught with a child just previous to them going to retire
024so why do they don't get penalized like any other area that they always talk about if they get caught and they get busted and they're kind they they lose everything I mean that that should have more of a bite for teach these Predators not to be predatoring predatoring around our kids cuz there's no consequence I going to go I pay a restitution he Senator Kim few thousand that's it PA and I going to retire in Florida you know see Florida but you know what I mean they're going to retire right there's no consequence to this cuz I retired unless I want to come back and go teach again which which most of do and most of them don't that's not it's not going to really have any bite thank you um for the question Senator
025um my understanding is the intent of this bill is to for to revoke a teacher's license um uh what happens after that related to retirement related to other issues of employment um I believe that would be beyond the scope of the Department's um uh um perview thank you Kim would it be the purview of the Board of Ed um Senator I I can get back to you on that um I know it's an employment uh question that both both senators are asking I I'm the reason why I'm hesitant to answer is I want to be sure that I give the correct response uh I'm not sure if if a teacher is in this case if a teacher is terminated and loses their license what repercussions if any are um are there to to their individual
026retirement that I'm not sure so I I can't get back to you on that if if they are found guilty in a court law then would they might be subject to because I know the police had something where they lost 50% of the retirement or was it full amount under the case of um Chief we had that whole situation and the police commission I think or we had a bill didn't we have a bill that they lost % yeah so uh I'm not sure if the um uh attorney general would have a see I'm not sure on the law component of that Senator um I can't get back to you I want to be sure that we have to we have to pass yeah we didn't um talk to the um but there's precedent I
027there's precedent because I think we've passed in the case of police I mean when it comes out to restitution right I mean we don't want the state paying for this person and they just retired we we are um very much in support of protecting our students yeah and um ensuring that those individuals that we're hiring the department that work directly with our with our students whether it be teachers or in any other capacity that um you know we're doing the best we can to uh support them and keep them safe which is really important right but a lot of our laws have no teeth that's the thing right we pass laws and we says you know you're prohibited from doing this you prohibit from doing that but there's really no teeth in it yeah they
028might lose their license but again you know they can go somewhere else but then they take take the pension and everything else that is paid for um yes Senator I I can't get back to you on that I don't I don't have to answer to I do know though that um my understanding is that in this case they're put on the National Registry um and that would they would lose their license and if my understanding is correct um and I defer to teacher Standards Board but my understanding is correct that um they will not be able to there's no reciprocity at that point and the teacher would not be able to teach in another state that we have reciprocity with yeah but but I understand your question about the retirement age retir so what what
029is your what is your personal opinion about you know we want to Once something happens it's too late the child is damaged for Life In some cases um so we want to deter that and so to deter that we have to put teeth in our laws so people realize there's consequences and if they do something so terrible as this that they will lose whatever they had hopefully that'll be one of the deterrents that it won't happen of course you know sometimes people are sick so it it won't but at the same time again the taxpayers are the ones that going to be paying for this individual for the rest of their life right with the pension so forth um um for me Senator um I do want to be sure that whatever we um whatever
030we're doing within the department is um we're operating within the the scope of the of existing law I'm asking you personally do you think that that we should have teeth in the law and that people should be deterred in that way personally yes I believe that we should do all we can to help protect our students thank you thank you further questions of superintendent thank you super thank you Felicia good afternoon chairs Vice chairs and members of the committee my name is Felicia vovos executive director of the Hawaii teacher Standards Board here on behalf of the board we stand on our written comments and I would like to highlight uh similar to the prior bill uh Senate Bill 3089 this bill also ask htsb to revoke a license prematurely we need to ensure that our
031process is already in place and investigation is completed and a ruling is made before htsb revokes a license also perhaps it should be added that an individual should surrender their license if they resign or entire Lu termination um we can put them in the NASDAQ Clearing House we also encourage our partners to join the NASDAQ Clearing House they can join as an associate member for $500 and they can run all their staff from custodial staff cafeteria staff all their staff employed through the NASDAQ Clearing House we have found nationally that some individuals who lose their license may go into a school in a different capacity as custodial um cafeteria workers bus drivers coaches they're able to run that person through their social security number and birth date to see if they have a hit on
032a license in a different state or jurisdiction I'm a available for any questions members questions just just one just a quick followup so so would you think for this bill going forward what you said would you think that we should add something to the provisions that would penalize them or making them lose um portion or all of their retirement to compensate and pay res restitution that would be interesting information to find out what other states and other jurisdic are doing as well so we can have that National conversation I can reach out we have a professional practice Institute every year it's an annual conference that deals with educator misconduct I can go and talk to those stakeholders to see what other states are doing when someone loses their license or have has a sanction or
033a revocation um superintendent is accurate if it goes into the NASDAQ Clearing House at National Database it hits on every single license they have in other jurisdiction so they're unable to teach and if they happen to not have license in that state once they input their social in the birthday um it'll hit that they have a revocation in another state or jurisdiction so they teaching careers pretty much done um but yeah that would be a great question to have at a NA national conversation to see what other states are doing when a teacher loses their license what else is lost with that they can work in a parks department or work with kids in other other yeah and that's why that associate membership is really important if the private schools want to be a partner
034of that associate membership for $500 a year they can run their own office social and birthday to see if they were uh somehow in Tennessee lost their license or certificate but it only accounts for teachers it wouldn't count for someone who has unless it uh risen to the level of sub type of uh Mr meter felony that's on a fingerprint check further questions members thank you Felicia you talked about um asking the teacher to surrender their license you know if we haven't done our homework and you know gotten evidence of of wrongdoing how many teachers do you know of who have surrendered license I would have to refer back to the department um from my understanding they have a paper that they signed saying I am resigning uh or retiring L termination and then it
035says something to the effect that the investigation will be resumed if they try to get employment with the Department of Education so we're I'm still trying to work with the Department on that language we were trying to hope uh add some kind of check box I also will surrender my license it will be reported in the nasda clearing house if they do not want to finish an investigation so it would probably be in the best interest to finish an investigation and then we can take action that way and then again um in that clearing house you talk about that is um across the United States cor across the US and jurisdictions yep we use it so we've actually found people that teachers apparently not all teachers know about this Clearing House we found people with
036four different revocations in four different states and they apply for Hawaii and we say once they hit um doing um create an account with their social and birthday it hits because we run it 24 hours so then we say uh uh uh we got to we got to go look what's going on with all these licenses so we we start contacting the different states and different licensing agencies interesting thank you so just one question so if if I were a teacher and I didn't want to complete the investigation and I just dropped out would that go into the the National Registry so it wouldn't show up no it wouldn't show up unless we got the investigation from the Department of Education so unfortunately the Hawaii teacher Standards Board does not have their own investigation team
037like other licensing states do they have a whole department dedicated to investigations of teacher misconduct we unfortunately do not have that right now so we rely on the Department of Education we work closely with them to get any of the does the National Registry have a a check box where if the Department of Education says this was terminated by the individual so investigation wasn't complete so so that information goes out into the registry is there something we can put we can put a different types of information we can put types what how why they got their license revoked um not necessarily I don't think we put in the um that they decided to resign or retire in L of termination um that's something we can probably talk agency to agency because they do contact us
038if uh they find a hit from a Hawaii license that has been revoked let's say in Texas they'll contact us for more investigation information and then at that time we can share because it seems that that's as much of a problem because people won't go through it and then they'll go to the next state right because it's not listen so hopefully if we have that St um that surrender then we can put him into the NDA oh well this is your choice you don't want to finish the investigation your choice is to surrender it and we're going to put in the nasda Clearing House or you can go ahead and go through the due process process of finishing your investigation in your um time as with the the teacher Standards Board have you ever seen
039a case where someone has surrendered their license because of an investigation that they did not want to happen no no usually they surrender because there was uh some kind of the field wasn't properly given to them or um they didn't want to go through our invest investigative process um however the loophole is they try to use reciprocity before surrendering it so what they'll do is when they know that they're about to surrender their license they'll go to another state where the license is still good use reciprocity and then surrender ours and then could can keep that other license so there's that little until we can put them into the system interesting members further questions thank you okay I think uh the Attorney General's office and we have some more work to do in this f
040um yeah I mean there's some things that we can clean up but I don't I'm not sure that it's you know what we're looking for so thank you than okay thank you chair uh Senate Bill 3090 uh related to workers comp okay allows newly graduated high school students to be eligible for workers com coverage during the summer following their graduation while participating in doe sponsored work-based learning programs up first we have a superintendent aloh cherino Vice chair moraki chair kidani Vice chair Kim members of the committee Kei aashi super intendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure workplace based internships and mentorships provide an excellent Pathway to prepare students for Life After High School extending workers compensation coverage through the summer uh
041after their senior year will provide peace of mind to both employers and students participating in these internships thank you for the opportunity to testify okay thank you very much up next we have Hawaii kids can David Muro can't support any others wishing to testify Senate Bill 390 seeing non members questions I have Vice chair uh superintendent um two things one um on the the coverage for students until July 31st um after they graduate so all of your internship programs end on July 31st what you don't have any that go past it so what is the July 31st special I believe um and I'll double check but I believe the ju July 31st uh date was selected as an end point uh internship internships may end before but after July 31st we're looking at a new
042school year so we're looking to end internships by 7:31 okay uh and also um you're saying that you would like to cover the workers comp but I don't see an appropriation in your budget uh or in the in the bill so how much are you estimating the workers count would be for these kids I I can get that information to you Senator um I believe in the last five years as we had internships in schools uh I don't believe that there's been a workers comp claim through student internships for 5 years but I I can um get an appropr I get get an estimate on that for you there's there's no provision for an appropriation so um if there is a cost we should know about it yes I I'm sorry about I'll give that
043to you thank you thank you okay yes so currently there is work of compensation for students just not for newly graduated students um yes I believe so so what happens when a student claims a worker or injury how does that work like you know they're they're there for what a month maybe internship two months they and they get hurt like um you know a week before the end of it then what happens um one second sen Sean Beacon assistant superintendent for the office of talent management thank you senator for the question my understanding of it is is if they are a high school student of ours and they are in an internship program um they would be eligible to be covered under our workers comp um but it runs up until they would to graduate
044so what we're just trying to do here with this is we're just trying to extend it through the summertime up until understand but what does that mean what do you cover just the medical do you give so they they would receive the the workers comp benefits so we would you know if they needed to go to their doctor they needed appropriate coverage you know um any type of um drug or prescription that they may need anything like that that would be covered um during this time I would have to check on that but I believe that they're eligible for it while they are a student so as soon as they're not a student or they graduate even though they still sustain the injury they no longer fall under the compensation I need to check on
045that I don't have an answer for you on that off the top of my head on that one you guys know that I mean if we extending the coverage I mean got know what we're extending the coverage or what the current coverage is personally I I would think that if they got hurt while they were a student doing something for a doe that they should be covered until they are you know until they're healed or whatever it is that would be my understanding but I don't want to misspeak in front of the committee here I'd like want to just confirm and get back to you on that so in regular comp workers comp not if I get hurt or somebody here gets hurt and we we have our doctors pay but we get paid while
046we're on work's C it's 2third of the compensation yeah so what what the students get some kind of compensation in addition to the coverage I don't I don't believe they're eligible Senator but we we'll double check on that and get back to you that's what I understand how that works yeah for yeah but for a current salaried employee it would be at 2third of their compensation they're not employees they're inter correct correct unpaid interns right interns and not getting paid but workers comp has a lot of right employee yeah cuz it is usually for employees security they are considered employees unpaid employees no no they're inter student internships sen so yeah I think we need to clarify clarification yes whether it's workers comp or just do is is liable for their medical cost yes true
047we we we'll get back to the committee on that okay thank you yeah because they are students so you might want to check into that and see whether you might have medical coverage or something to address the internships okay thank you you is there a student um medical coverage offered um I don't believe through through the internship program though no just a question then what happens when a student on campus gets hurt what happens to who covers them um I believe they submit a uh claim through um our cour office but we'll get it's not I don't think they would get Workers Comp get some other kind of coverage you should have families have medical cage right well che check into what you do with students and you're extending the student and then you covered
048through that okay thank you that's I guess not a a questionnaire that I me a question that's on a questionnaire that students get when they enter School they they they do they they do fill out on their um their um Health form and registration form okay but do someone in the do or at the school check because if they have no medical coverage you may not want to use them as an inter you know and be liable unless they can provide information on medical coverage well we'll check on that thank you very much members any other questions um is is budget and finance here by any chance okay all right potential fiscal impact okay thank you very much recess for decision yes okay we're in recess we are reconvening the Committees on education and labor
049members the recommendation of the chair for Senate Bill 2475 is to pass with amendments and we need to work a little bit more with um with I'm sorry this one yeah we do need to work with um our attorney general if we're adopting their testimony as well as the Department of Education and insert language in the event an individual retires or resigns from teaching prior to the completion of the investigation the individual must surrender his his or her Hawaii teaching license and the surrender of the individual's teaching license will be reported to the National Association of State directors of teachers education and certification comments questions members thank you for you guys have comments vote Yes okay the recommendation for Senate Bill 2475 is to pass with amendments uh chair chair voteo ior Richards is excused
050Senator flla I For Eyes one excuse recommendations adopted okay labor committee same recommendations any questions to concerns sing n Vice chair chair votes I I Vice chair votes I hi excuse Senator Lee I Senator F hi for recommendations [Applause] adopted thank you and for Senate Bill 389 um recommendation of the chair it's also to pass with amendments um this is the bill that will pull the licensing if they the teachers retire or resign before the investigation is completed the recommendation is to pass with amendments chair votes I chair votes I on Senate Bill 3089 pass with amendments any members on the education committee voting with reservations anyone in opposition hearing none four members present all voting in affirmative Madam chair your recommendations adopted okay thank you very much uh labor committee same recommendations any questions
051of concerns seeing none Vice chair so um any opposition any reservations C excuse the measure is adopted okay thank you very much um on to the last Senate Bill 3090 relating to workers compensation we're going to defer decision making until we receive a little bit more clarifying um information from doe okay so we members before we ad Jour can I go back and just clarify on our Senate bill is it 3089 where we are also adopting the um testimony of the white teacher standard board and conet language that we will do amendments on questions thank you members okay um just to clarify again for 3090 we're going to uh defer decision making to Friday at 3 p.m. same conference room thank you thank you you are adjourned thank you thank you calling to order the
052committee on education our second agenda Monday February 5th at 3:15 p.m. first item on the agenda is Senate Bill 3087 relating to Early Learning expands access to Early Learning programs on other State properties and public lands besides the Department of Education public school campuses sorry to testify superintendent Hayashi [Music] good afternoon chair Vice chair uh members of the committee curo um testifying on behalf of our superintendent Keith Hayashi and for the Department uh the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure just want to share that you know Studies have shown that the quality of early learning opportunities have have lifelong impacts uh positive impacts on the Hawai Ki and their families and as you know we've been working with the r Kiki program and E to expand the number of classrooms
053um thanks to the leadership of the lieutenant governor and so we're very much behind this happy to answer any questions thank you thank you members questions moving on to Yuko AR recol cross e hello chair kirani Vice chair and members of the committee I'm Yuko Aro across director of the executive office on early learning we stand on our written testimony and strong support of this measure I'd like to quickly quickly highlight a few comments that have more detail in our written testimony the intention of this spill is to expand the current Pre Plus contract model to also apply to existing underutilize spaces on other public properties in addition to what currently exist on Department of Education campuses this measure has no fiscal request nor requires any operational funding as it would provide eel the authority
054to contract early learning services on existing underutilized spaces we also want to note that the Amendments also include using the verbiage early learning as early learning is already defined in our statute I'm available to answer questions and Mahala for the opportunity to testify thank you members questions thank you next to testify office of Hawaiian Affairs kopu release release Al chair Vice chair members of the committee my name is kit I'm the director of advocacy for the office of wine Affairs we stand on our written testimony in support and just a quick highlight um we are four years into our 15 year strategic plan and when we were building the community input to that strategic plan one of the most clear needs that came from our community was the the ability to provide high quality K
055and Cuna care so we stand in support of this as a as one piece to to move the needle on ensuring we have access to Kik care Hollow thank you members questions thank you next to testify Sher Nakamura nakam thank you Sherry members any questions on Sherry's testimony next to testify Angela Melody young Aloha chair Vice chair and the committee Angela Melody young testifying in strong support on behalf of cares so um Early Learning and early childhood education is so important to our school systems and to supporting parents teachers and the community the new policy is to request to create additional public spaces for early learning programs the executive office on early learning has a public pre kindergarten program and it's provided in collaboration with the Hawaii Department of Education and the program provides high
056quality learning experiences which addresses children's physical development and health and social and emotional development cognition language and literacy and approaches to learning the ready Kiki program from the LG's office reflects a superior quality of early childhood education program and this is a good time to work on this as the city has also created a Early Childhood Program from the Department of Community Services The Early Childhood Division office so we are in strong support um we have a small team for our art class and we have to talk to parents and teachers and students all the time so this is very relatable to the community and to cares thank you thank you members questions of thank you on Zoom we have chabel Davis Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee My Name
057is shabal Davis director of early childhood and health policy with Hai children's Action Network speaks standing on our written testimony and strong support of this measure Mahalo for the opportunity to testify thank you chel are there any additional testifiers present who would like to testify if not members questions of any of the question there's no appropriation in this measure is there any cost associated with putting programs on other properties So currently with the Pre Plus contracts that are on doe campuses um it's a partnership with the it's a public private partnership with the Department of Education so sometimes there may be nominal fees like if electricity and some other cost um that come with use of facilities yeah but now you're going outside of thee properties right so what's a cost might be so that's
058where we'll have to negotiate with uh different um holders of land um so we know that there's different holders of land even on uh doe school campuses and so we have to take a look at um agreements with them whoever is willing to enter into these agreements with us so you're looking at more of someone um reciprocating in a partnership versus is charging you rent um I think we're open to all kinds of agreements right now it just be expanding the the ability to have a public private partnership so if there are funds Avail required where's that money going to come from so that would probably have to come into the agreement of the contract of the space yeah but where are you going to get the money to pay for it so that could
059come into the agreement with the contract with whoever the provider might be the public private partnership provider so so it wouldn't come from government I'm not expecting it to no okay come back next year and ask for Mone thank you so do you have any any uh leads on places that might um want things like I know um OHA has has discussed this several times I don't know if they have um recreation centers on any of the Hawaiian homelands that could have these kinds of um facilities so um nothing is 100% certain right now but we have been exploring many different places for example um one one exploration was at like kamamalu Park let's say for example or another example that was thrown out was in the library systems or in different developments that the
060city and county is you know kind of bringing up and um Partnerships with other um uh facilities developments for housing and so I think that uh right now eel does not have the ability to support the early care and learning system in this way so I think that this is one method that we can use a strategy to be able to increase access for Children and Families thank you I think that it would be a good idea possibly to look at some of our libraries or other spaces that are not in full use during the day um of course it depends on the location and the size of the library but I I think I think it's a great idea yeah absolutely and we do utilize the um University Center on the family they did
061do a research in terms of um access and opportunity across all of of Hawaii so we are taking a look at that in addition to Lieutenant Governor's map thank you thank you is there anyone else wishing to testify on this matter if not moving on to Senate Bill 2114 relating to feral animals why is this in my committee sorry prohibits the feeding of feral animals within a certain distance from Department of Education public school campuses establishes fines do you have your tape measure ready for measuring sorry doe good afternoon chair and vice chair members of one one member of the committee kurle toguro Deputy superintendent Department stands on its written testimony uh offering comments and um as Senator you said while we are supportive of the concept it is it's we need clarification as to
062how you would Define the the the footage and more importantly how we would um enforce it and when you enforce something with civil penalties then there's a lot of requirements for signage and there would be expense associated with that kind of notice to the public so uh the execution in this bill uh it needs further clarification thank you for this opportunity to testify thank you members questions so you said B require putting signage no feeding so then how does the city and county enforce they're feeding on feral cats because most of the areas that they feeding and getting ticketed or reprimanding don't have signs then legally it's difficult to enforce right we we need signers that refers to an HRS specifically um then that would allow the enforcement officer to take action without a proper
063sign you can say that but it it's hard to apply the uh civil penalty so somebody told me that was very intelligent that is there any way we can partty train all the F animals all we could wish it's a it's a challenge for our entire State there's no question about it thank you thank you for the questions anyone else wishing to testify on this measure my H H oh sorry helloo good afternoon thank you for listening to me I am Holly hok president and founder of pooki place aahoo cat sanctuary which is a large scale plan Sanctuary um to help feral cats um I appreciate and respect the work of the committee of education and the Department of Education but when I read this bill I was wondering why did you feel it was
064necessary to write this bill and create such a law that would impact every public school in the state what happened why did you need to take a drastic step I wondered who would enforce it as he said it's going to be very in expensive to to try to figure out who's going to have fines and if the feral animals you're talking about is cats please understand that those who are feeding are also doing trap neuter release manage and the feeding is an important part of identifying the cats that need to be trapped and neutered so that it reduces the population over time um it's a slower way to reduce the population than killing but it is effective and it is Humane I oppose this bill and stand on my testimony and I'm here to answer
065any questions and I urge you to vote no thank you col question I just like get you in clarification I understand um the part about the cats but I don't I don't know what area you live but where I live in a lot of places where I live we have Ferro chickens yes and they're very very aggressive yes um and dirty too but they're very aggressive so this is not just about cat going after the cats is just any of the pharoh animals that is being pee with bread and all this kind of stuff is very much a nuisance when the kids go in they dig like this in the dirt so the kids go play get holes in the ground from the chickens you know digging up the dirt so it's not just you
066know feeling that way it's not when we looked at the bill okay wasn't just about cats I appreciate that and I want to say something I was the director of Weinberg Village wi Manalo for 17 years was a homeless shelter for families uh in a very rural setting with three acres of cats and chickens I walked onto the property and there were cats everywhere and there were chickens everywhere and they make those holes and the chickens are really more of a problem and when I would feed the cats the chickens would come and eat it all up as fast as I could so I ended up feeding chicken feed to the chickens over here and cat food over here but I must say that in the 17 years that I was there I never had
067anybody complain about cats causing a problem for them nobody got sick nobody had even my pregnant mothers didn't get sick I never got complaints about that I know there are issues with cats and the reason I created pooke place was because of a direct result of my experience there I want to make a difference and um I have brochures for you that I can leave with the clerk so you understand who we are and I don't know how you would just identify feral chickens as being one in that bill or feral cats being in the bill but if you could allow the colony caregivers to continue to feed the cats nearby they can be at the edge or whatever but as long as you have food coming from the cafeteria or whatever you know animals
068will come all animals will come thank you chair thank you anything else thank you for your time I appreciate it thank you well I have two dogs that are adopted dogs and I understand testimony just trying to figure out how we deal with it on school grounds we have another testif also okay next to testify noro Freeman's noico Freeman oh next to testify lesie wit good afternoon Cheroke kidani Vice chair distinguished committee my name is lesie witton I'm here today as a um enthusiastic citizen I'm really excited to be here today um I've been part of the the feral cat tnrm volunteer Force across this island for years trying to make a difference because we do have a problem I also volunteer for po dog and pooki um I also work at a school I
069work at a school that's had feral animals positioned on it since the beginning of time we're along the Cav noi Marsh I'm not here representing the school to make that clear I'm here as a citizen to share my experiences um the language of this bill is why I oppose it it broadly covers all feral animals and I think the Nuance is important when we talk about feral cats to not be able to feed directly inhibits our ability to help with the animal control in 2022 my school stopped allowing feeding they prohibited it it interfered with our tnrm efforts standing for trap neuter return manage efforts and I witnessed how the problem got worse the cat population increased the area that they roamed looking for food increased they were under classrooms in the trash cans pooping
070outside of the library the exposure to to potential contaminants increased because the designated feeding areas were prohibited on the perimeter of the campus plus hungry cats eat birds which are native Wildlife we need to protect they also eat rodents which are the disease carriers when you don't feed the feral cats in this bill that equals more cats less Birds more disease disallowing feeding simply won't work but partnering with tnrm feeders will I've set up a program at my school that has a registry of authorized feeders we document our feral animals we sterilize them microchip them we work as a community in collaboration with Community organizations like the Humane Society po dog and pooki and other organizations to make a difference this bill should be opposed because it's too vague too hard to manage and there
071are better ways we can do it I'm happy to share our schools program with the doe and other schools to try to make a lasting difference thank you for your time thank you I'd be happy if you would share that with commit also thank you thank you next to testify Jasmine May Jasmine on Zoom Stephanie Kendrick Stephanie loha chair kadani Vice chair Kim and Senator favella uh Stephanie Kendrick with the Hoin Humane Society thank you for allowing me to be with you today I wanted to share our comments on this measure um for the reasons that other testifiers have brought up the measure might be counterproductive Ive to its goal of reducing the population of feral animals on and around school campuses feeding is a necessary component of the Humane population management for animals living
072Outdoors including feral cats uh chickens pigeons even pigs need to have their traps baited so we would encourage um the committee if you are going to pass this out to adopt the language that we had inserted in our state microchipping law uh would exempt uh population management programs from the prohibitions outlined in this measure to distinguish folks who really are working to reduce these animal populations from those who might just be putting food out on the landscape which is not an activity we support I would also point out that the definition of feral in this measure uh is really inconsistent with the way we normally use that term which regards an animal socialization toward people the definition of feral in this measure would really apply to any stray animal whether it's an owned pet or
073not so I would suggest a definition of feral that has to do with the lack of socialization to human beings I appreciate the committee's time thank you for hearing my testimony thank you Stephanie next to testify Kathy gole gole on Zoom not present on Zoom chair thank you next to testify Renee RAB also on Zoom Renee thank you chair and me and Senators members of the committee uh I'm not going to take up your time uh I'm going to Echo briefly some of the thing I am very opposed to this bill I want to Echo the information that you've already been provided by uh varieties of organized groups that work with rescuing and rehoming and adopting animals um one of my primary objections to the bill is the definition of uh feral animals as Steph
074just mentioned it is very vague it is going to be very very problematic for anybody to be able to enforce thank you so much and please um please defer this bill it will cause more problems than it solves thank you for your testimony members questions is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure [Music] Aloha chair Vice chair on the committee Angela Mel young testifying in strong support actually I'm so sorry in um opposition opposition opposing um on behalf of Roar Rescue of animal rights so living creatures have a right to life and if the people from the community are caring for the Pharaoh cats and Pharaoh chickens near School those living creatures have a right to life and should receive care and if the state has not legislated parameters to manage those
075species then people will have to provide medical care trap and neuter services and feedings to the feral chickens and cats typically these resources and Care can be provided by dlnr and DOA dlnr has the perview to manage forestry and wildlife sanctuaries and various animals and various species DOA manages animal industry Division and quarantine and health standards of those operating with living creatures the most appropriate offices to manage the animals from the state are those offices and the City Works with the Humane Society and so this is the rationale to why we oppose this bill because um if the due diligence is not done to manage and to be stewards and although the state has every right to make a law about no access for people trying to provide medical care for feral cats and feral
076chickens this law will be working against The Advocates who have spent endless time and resources providing surgeries Medical Care food and also um The Advocates are working without support from the state and the city although works with the Humane Society that is one of the only support systems to the cat community and the bird rescue community so I you know War if we could propose it would be to create signage and a graphic design with informational fly ERS to post at schools in public places about appropriate animal resources who to contact if you discover a kitten what to do if you find a group of chicks and list the resources Humane Society animal abuse division Hoy bird rescue the struggle right now is getting the state to learn about these resources and then to create
077the management policy with the advice from the clinics the cat community and the rescue teams who are the doctors the nurses and The Rescuers thank you thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this matter um de I have a question one or two how many times in a day or a week do you guys have to deal with feral animals on your campus I would imagine almost every day depending on the campus um chickens um how do you deal with them depending on the severity we will have to contract um for eradication in some cases set traps um depending on the situation is that your first choice um that that like I said it depends on the principle and the sity of what they're reporting uh so our maintenance Branch would
078would assess it and then make that determination well may I suggest that you contact some of these um organizations that have testified to work with you um before it gets so severe I would think that there are other ways to deal with this sure um yeah it was it was good to hear the testimony understand the problem I understand um you know the um especially with young children on campus having to deal with um feral cats and dogs and the mess that they may leave um and I'm not sure if they're coming on the campus Because of food waste not being properly stored or whatever it is but maybe that's some of the things you guys need to look at yes very good good suggestion yeah but I you know if you can if you
079can give me a complaint a list of complaints that we've had in the last say two years okay of colonies or feral animals on the campus and how long it took you guys to remedy the the case okay sure thank you question how many people have your folks identified as feeders feed oh I I wouldn't have that answer who actually comes on campus to feed the animals or nearby I mean obviously this bill is is pointing or is directed to them so I'm just wondering if there's regular people that live nearby that are the ones that are feeding them or I I don't know that answer because it doesn't necessarily solve any problem on the campus with these feral animals whether you know these people are feeding them or not right I mean the fact
080is you have them on your campus you have them on your campus so but is it's directed at feeder so I'm just curious if there's a bunch of people regularly nearby I'll see if I can pull the system that's a good idea thank you so um Kurt I I just want to say that my intention is to defer the bill and I'd like more information from doe as to you know what steps you have taken to contact um some of the the organizations that deal with you know her casts lost dogs whatever and see if we can try and resolve the issue that way and if not we can address this matter again next year great thank you thank you okay next 252 okay Senate Bill 2252 rela to the Board of Education authoriz the
081board to consider qualified individuals Associates for your high school education and industry experience and contact expertise to teach Career and Technical education testify good afternoon chair kadani Vice chair Kim members of the committee Sean bacon assistant superintendent for the office of talent management for the Department of Education we stand on our written testimony and support and just one thing that we noticed after submitt of the testimony is it references in the description of the bill uh the board of education but I believe in uh 302a 803 it actually falls under the subsection of the Hawaii teachers Standards Board uh so we'd really defer to the the Standards Board I think you know the this really this amendment I think would really exercise more flexibility I I think Career and Technical education has been a really
082really big focus of the superintendent and you know as we're looking to try to fill the shortage of our teachers and having those with industry experience I think that this bill would definitely help us so We Stand by ready with any questions thank you thank you questions next to test testify Felicia good afternoon chair kadani good afternoon Vice chair Kim uh Felicia Vios executive director of the Hawaii teacher Standards Board on behalf of the board we're in support of uh Senate Bill 2252 with our suggestion amendments and htsb would like to thank senator kadani for introducing this bill the board would also like to acknowledge htsb CTE workg group comprised of a variety of CTE stakeholders that identify the revision of this language and it should be a way to widen the pipeline for CTE
083teachers to enter the classroom uh we hope this bill can be amended to identify htsb as the authority charged with this task so thank you for the opportunity to testify available for questions questions okay anyone else wishing to testify on this matter that's the end of our agenda yes recess thank you for being patient the recommendation of the chair for Senate Bill 3087 relating to Early Learning is to pass with amendments the amendments are Technical and non-substantive chair V Senate Bill 3087 um recommendation to pass with amendments chair Wai Vice chair Wai senoro hi uh Senator Richards and Senator flla excuse your recommendations adopted thank you for Senate Bill 2114 recommendation this is relating to feral animals the recommendation of the chair is to defer this measure defer this measure Senate Bill 2252 relating to
084the Board of Education authorizing the board to consider qualified individuals with at least an associates degree or high school diploma with comparable education and cours work industry experience and content content experience to teach Career and Technical education courses recommendation of the chair is to defer members questions thank you meeting a j what