STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2395

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2122

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Education and Housing, Higher Education, and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2122 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RESEARCH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education, the University of Hawaii, and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to share data to support research that will improve educational and workforce outcomes and meet the longitudinal data requirements of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by three state agencies.  Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by one state agency and one organization.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committees find that Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education has already received funding for and is in the first year of a three-year project to develop a statewide Longitudinal Data System for students from kindergarten to grade twelve, pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 146 (2009).  The Department of Education, University of Hawaii, and Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the lead agencies in that collaborative effort, executed an inter-agency data sharing Memorandum of Agreement in October of 2009.  In the fall of 2009, Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education also coordinated the State's application for a United States Department of Education Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grants competition to expand the Longitudinal Data System to include outcomes from early childhood to kindergarten and from grade twelve to the workforce.  Your Committees find that an expansion of the Longitudinal Data System requires the collection of an even greater depth and breadth of data and that this measure facilitates that effort by codifying data-sharing requirements that have already been agreed to through the October 2009 Memorandum of Agreement.

     Your Committees further find that requiring all appropriate state agencies to share data would ensure that a more comprehensive set of data is available should the State be awarded additional funding to expand the Longitudinal Data System.  Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure as follows:

     (1)  By expanding the requirement for data-sharing and the membership of the Data Governance and Access Committee to also include other appropriate state agencies;

     (2)  By clarifying that the data sharing shall occur no less than annually;

     (3)  By clarifying that the Data Governance and Access Committee shall prioritize analyses and research questions that will provide information to improve educational and workforce outcomes and policies; and

     (4)  By requiring all state agency directors to consider sharing data for the statewide Longitudinal Data System.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Housing, Higher Education, and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2122, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2122, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Housing, Higher Education, and Labor,

____________________________ JILL TOKUDA, Chair	____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair
	____________________________ DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair