MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM.

Appropriates funding to bring the state library system into more complete ADA compliance.

RELATING TO WATER SAFETY CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

Appropriates funds to develop a water safety certification program in public elementary schools to teach swimming and prevent drowning of nonswimmers. Requires students to complete and pass a water certification test by grade five. Allows fees to be collected by the department of education.

RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SERVICES.

Appropriates funds to provide cultural education and integration, language, and legal services for Micronesian, Marshallese, and Palauan immigrants in Hawaii in order to assist them in becoming contributing members of the community.

RELATING TO THE HAWAII COMMISSION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE.

Appropriates $142,000 in state matching funds to the Hawaii commission for national and community service.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Exempts Waianae high school in a pilot project from all applicable state laws, except collective bargaining, discriminatory practices, and health and safety requirements.

RELATING TO STUDENT MISCONDUCT.

Requires the DOE to contract with the DOH to conduct an anonymous student survey each school year to determine whether school staff are under-reporting the incidence and prevalence of bullying in public schools. Requires the DOE to contract with the attorney general to investigate significant under-reporting.

RELATING TO HAZING.

Creates the misdemeanor offense of hazing in all schools and colleges.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Allows a teacher to exclude from the classroom any student who: (1) engages in conduct that violates the teacher's rules and policies, approved by the principal; and (2) assaults, threatens, abuses or intimidates a school employee or student. The student may be readmitted to the classroom if the principal determines the return is appropriate.

RELATING TO COMMUNITY COLLEGES.

Enables community colleges to establish middle colleges for the education of high school juniors and seniors to receive a high school diploma and take community college courses; makes appropriation.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Creates a trust fund to fund scholarships as a requirement of the State's participation in the federal Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Appropriates funding to support the "Wednesday is Tutoring Day in Lahaina" literacy project in Lahaina complex public schools.

RELATING TO CLASS SIZE REDUCTION.

Requires the department of education, subject to the availability of funds, to reduce the ratio of students to teachers in kindergarten to grade six to not more than twenty students to one teacher, over a period of years.

RELATING TO TEACHERS.

Requires the employment term of each full-time teacher in DOE schools to be not less than eleven months annually, provided that no less than one of those months is dedicated to twenty days of professional development; grandfathers existing collective bargaining agreements.

RELATING TO TEACHERS.

Allows the department to hire professionals as exceptional teachers. Authorizes alternative routes to licensing based on performance-based standards and experience. Permits businesses to allow DOE professional employees to work in the DOE by offering an annual tax credit equivalent to two per cent of their employee's annual salary.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Exempts certified retired teachers from any prerequisite coursework that the department may require of other substitute teachers.

RELATING TO LIBRARIES.

At Waiakea elementary school, creates a full-time library assistant III position and converts an existing library assistant III position from part-time to full-time.

RELATING TO SPECIAL EDUCATION.

Requires special education students in full-time self-contained classrooms and integrated self-contained classrooms to be counted as full count regular students and full count special education students when computing the statewide student-to-teacher ratio.

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

Establishes a financial aid for post-secondary education and training for low-income students program.

RELATING TO STUDENTS.

Requires middle and high school students to prepare and use education and transition plans for life after high school; makes appropriation.

RELATING TO SCHOOL PERSONNEL.

Appropriates funding to hire additional career counselors for each department of education high school, based on school enrollment.

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Senator Norman Sakamoto