Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to change the date used to determine a child's age to begin kindergarten and to require funds saved by this change to be used for certain educational programs that include early education, school readiness, class size reduction, and repair and maintenance.

Specifically, the measure:

Your Committee finds that changing the date for determining a child's kindergarten entry will help later born children be better prepared and more successful in kindergarten. Research has shown that students born in the first half of the year achieve higher test scores than children born in the last six months. Statistically, later born children are classified as specific learning disabled more often than children born between January and June. By changing the date from December 31 to January 1, your Committee hopes to enable all children to begin kindergarten at an age when they are most likely to be prepared to succeed.

Some of your Committee members expressed their concerns about the current draft of this bill. The prior Committee was supposed to include language that would establish an assessment process for children born between the period of September 30 and June 30. This is the period between the current entry date and the proposed entry date for kindergarten. The assessment process would allow a child born between those dates to enter kindergarten if the assessment indicates that the child is ready for school. Your Committee is making this bill defective so that substantive discussions on this issue will continue and to consider including the assessment process at a future date.

Your Committee has amended this measure by delaying its implementation so that children will be required to be at least five years of age before October 1 for school year 2005-2006. For subsequent years, a child must be at least five years old before January 1 of the school year. Reference to reaching age 5 before July 1 for school year 2004-2005 has been deleted. Additionally, the effective date of this measure has been changed from upon approval to July 1, 2050.

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 S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2032, S.D. 2.