STAND. COM. REP. NO. 618

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 855
                                     




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No.
855 entitled:

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to
establish an additional one hundred seventy, full-time
equivalent, permanent teacher positions in the Department of
Education during the 1999-2001 fiscal biennium to improve
services to special education students.

     Your Committee finds that the State is obligated under the
Felix consent decree to improve services to special education
students.  The Felix management and accountability study
recommended a change in the formula for allocating regular
education teachers so that each special education student would
be counted as one whole regular education student.

     Your Committee finds that a major concern with the
allocation system for special education students is that the
current system provides a disincentive for mainstreaming or
inclusion of students with disabilities within the general
education classroom.  Specifically, staffing weights are not
assigned for students with disabilities receiving special
education supports in the general education classroom.  As an
example, if a general education classroom has thirty-two students

 
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and eight of these students are special education students, only
twenty-four students are calculated in general education funding
even though the eight students spend the majority of their time
in the regular education classroom and the regular education
classroom teacher has to manage and provide for all thirty-two
students.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this bill
from the Department of Education and the Hawaii State Teachers
Association.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
855 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to
the Committee on Finance.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Education,



                                   ______________________________
                                   KEN ITO, Chair

 
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