CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 128-10

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2010

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2068

       S.D. 2

       H.D. 1

       C.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam and Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 2068, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY EDUCATION,"

 

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

 

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education and Early Learning Council to work together on the development and submission of a plan to the Legislature for the integration of the cohort of children who would otherwise attend junior kindergarten into the early learning system.

 

     Your Committee on Conference finds that Act 219, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, launched a Junior Kindergarten program beginning with the 2006-07 school year with the intent of enabling Hawaii's children to succeed in kindergarten and subsequent schooling by addressing their varying developmental and learning needs.  To date, however, only about one-third of the schools have adopted a variation of the Junior Kindergarten program.  Moreover, early findings indicate that these children may be more appropriately placed in a pre-school type setting. 

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the current economic situation has resulted in deep cuts in subsidies from the Department of Human Services.  Families are finding it increasingly difficult to enroll their children in preschools and in some cases the quality of early learning settings has come into question because of the need to reduce staff.  By eliminating the junior kindergarten option, some children will be foreclosed from attending any pre-kindergarten program at all.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Refocusing the measure, as reflected in the purpose clause, that more rapid progress must be made in finding cost-effective methods of providing early education;

 

     (2)  Amending the age requirement for entrance into the public kindergarten program to allow children who will be at least five years of age on the first day of instruction to attend a public school kindergarten, beginning in the 2013-2014 school year;

 

     (3)  Requiring that the Department of Education and Early Learning Council work together to develop a plan to assess the success of public junior kindergarten programs at individual schools, including a funding plan; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of style, consistency, and clarity.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2068, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2068, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

 

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

 

____________________________ ROY TAKUMI, Co-Chair		____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair
____________________________ MARILYN B. LEE, Co-Chair		____________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Co-Chair