STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1509

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 855
                                        H.D. 1
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B.
No. 855, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, 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--the amount
of which has yet to be determined--to establish an additional one
hundred seventy, full-time equivalent, permanent teacher
positions in the Department of Education during the 1999-2001
biennium to improve services to special education students.

     Your Committee finds that the State is obligated under the
Felix v. Cayetano 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

 
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education supports in the general education classroom.  As an
example, if a general education classroom has thirty-two students
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 has not specified the amount of funds to be
appropriated during the 1999-2001 biennium since work on the
state budget is still in progress.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
855, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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