Bill Text: HI HB1472 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Public Schools; Age Limit
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-01-28 - Referred to EDN, FIN, referral sheet 7 [HB1472 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2013-HB1472-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1472 |
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TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to education.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Act 163, Session Laws of Hawaii 2010, established the age of twenty as the threshold age for disqualification from attendance at a department of education school. Although the provisions of Act 163 fall within the stated exceptions to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the provisions do not promote the main purposes of the federal Act, which are "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living" and "to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected." Title 20, United States Code, section 1400(d)(1)(A) and (B). Act 163 effectively sets an "age out" limit for public school students, including special education students, at their nineteenth birthday, two years short of what the federal Act generally requires, which is a free and appropriate public education to students ages three to twenty-one, inclusive. Title 20, United States Code, section 1412(a)(1)(A). Furthermore, Hawaii is one of only two states in the United States that do not satisfy this federal standard.
The most recent published financial overview from the department of education, spanning the 2010-2011 fiscal year, indicates that out of an operating budget of $2,340,000,000, only $438,000,000, approximately nineteen per cent, was expended by the department of education on special education, a decrease from the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
The legislature further finds that when looking at long-term expenditures and comparing the life-cycle cost of an individual with disabilities (including post-high school medicaid expenses for those incapable of living independently) to the cost of an additional two years of education (which could be used to teach vocational and rehabilitative skills), the education costs seem somewhat negligible. In 2007, medicaid payments to disabled individuals in Hawaii reached $363,000,000, with an average of $14,472 paid to each enrollee. An extrapolation of that number over a lifetime yields a total cost that becomes exponentially larger than what the State is expending for special education for each student each year.
The purpose of this Act is to satisfy federal standards for providing children with disabilities access to a public education by raising the threshold age for disqualification from attending a department of education school from twenty years of age to twenty-two years of age.
SECTION 2. Section 302A-1134, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
"(c) No person who is [twenty] twenty-two
years of age or over on the first instructional day of the school year shall be
eligible to attend a public school. If a person reaches [twenty] twenty-two
years of age after the first instructional day of the school year, the person
shall be eligible to attend public school for the full school year."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Public Schools; Age Limit
Description:
Raises the threshold age for disqualification from attending a DOE school from 20 years of age to 22 years of age, to accommodate federal standards for providing children with disabilities access to a public education.
The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
