Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 277, H.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to, as received by your Committee, is to establish an administrative process and sanctions for truancy.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Teachers Association and four public school educators. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by a concerned citizen who works with truant youth. The Office of the Public Defender and Waianae school administrators submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committee finds that truancy by a student who is compelled by law to attend school may not always be the result of a student not wanting to attend school, but may reflect a parent's negligence or lack of parenting skills. Your Committee further finds that if parents are brought before an administrative hearings officer or a family court judge to explain their child's truancy, they may become more attentive to and responsible for their child's educational needs. However, your Committee is concerned that there is neither statewide data nor any research about the extent of this problem to warrant establishment of a new state policy and program that will require the Judiciary to stretch limited resources at a time of fiscal austerity.

Thus, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and substituting therefor provisions to request the Board of Education to:

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. 277, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 277, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.