Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 205, S.D. 3, H.D. 2, entitled:

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

The purpose of this measure is to encourage parents to be actively involved in the education of their children by establishing that public employees shall be eligible for at least two hours of paid leave, under certain conditions, to attend either:

Additionally, this measure establishes a limit of no more than four conferences per child in a calendar year. This measure also provides that the paid leave permitted shall not be credited against a public employee's vacation or sick leave benefits, and that such leave shall not interfere with the operations of the work unit or require the affected agency to incur any overtime costs or additional human resources. Furthermore, the measure specifies that travel time is to be included within the two hours allotted an employee per conference.

Your Committee on Conference has determined that it is important to support and facilitate parents' ability to become involved in the lives of their children. In order to help foster the parent-child relationship, public employees should be provided with paid leave to attend parent-teacher and parent-caregiver conferences. Currently, under Administrative Directive 93-02, State employees are permitted to utilize up to four hours of paid leave to attend parent-teacher or parent-caregiver conferences per school year. However, the same leave policy is not provided to all public employees on a consistent basis. Your Committee on Conference has further determined that the statutory codification of the existing policy supporting parental involvement will act to firmly establish the State's dedication to the welfare of the family unit.

Upon further deliberation, your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by reducing the number of conferences permitted per year per child from four conferences to two conferences.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 205, S.D. 3, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 205, S.D. 3, H.D. 2, C.D. 1.