STAND. COM. REP. NO.500
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: S.B. No. 631
S.D. 1
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 S.B. No. 631 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to establish monetary fines, community service, and other penalties for students who are truant from school.
The Department of Education submitted comments on this 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.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Replacing the terms "child" with "student", "mother and father" with "parent", and "cause" with "summon" to reflect proper statutory terms;
(2) Deleting the minimum amounts of fines to be imposed in all offense categories;
(3) Setting the minimum term for community services at fifty hours for all offense categories; and
(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and style.
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. 631, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 631, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,
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____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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