Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 197 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Family Court to provide written notice to the District Superintendent or Chief Administrator when a minor enrolled in a public or private school, K-12, has been adjudicated to have committed a felony.

The measure also clarifies that the court can make legal records public, requires the family court to provide reasonable access to these records to Department of Education, and requires the Department of Education to establish safeguards to protect confidentiality of this information.

Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. Testimony in opposition was submitted by the Judiciary.

Your Committee finds that there is a very delicate balance between providing the tools educators need and respecting the privacy of adjudicated students. For instance, the written notice required by this measure could protect the safety of staff and other students, and help teachers and counselors better serve the unique needs of adjudicated students. On the other hand, their criminal behavior may be an aberration in their otherwise lawful record, and public knowledge of their adjudication may create a stigma detrimental to their long-term development into productive members of society.

Your Committee has amended the measure by deleting most of its provisions for the purpose of continuing discussion on this issue. Remaining provisions leave to the discretion of the Family Court whether or not to provide written notice to schools, and then only for the limited purpose of rehabilitating the minor and protecting students and staff.

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 S.B. No. 197, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 197, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.