STAND. COM. REP. NO. 321

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 289

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 289 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Appropriate funds for the Families for R.E.A.L. Program and professional and curriculum development in parent involvement for the Department of Education and the Early Learning Council;

     (2)  Require the Families for R.E.A.L. Program to develop a plan to cover an unspecified percentage of the program costs through fees, grants, and private donations, starting July 1, 2013;

     (3)  Beginning July 1, 2013, require any appropriations for the Families for R.E.A.L. Program to require matching funds at an unspecified ratio of public funds to private funds; and

     (4)  Require the Families for R.E.A.L. Program to report to the Legislature and Governor no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; Kamehameha Schools; the Hawaii Chapter, American Physical Therapy Association; the Families for R.E.A.L. Windward Site Coordinator; the Families for R.E.A.L. Leeward Site Coordinator; and one hundred fifty-three individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the Families for R.E.A.L. Program provides valuable resources, lessons, and support to both parents and their young children.  In addition, it provides young children with the opportunity to interact with other children and learn new skills to better prepare them to enter school.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Specifying that the Families for R.E.A.L. Program shall develop a plan to cover twenty-five percent of its costs through fees, grants, and public donations beginning July 1, 2013;

     (2)  Requiring that the plan include a strategy for the Families for R.E.A.L. Program to transition into a greater statewide role to provide resources to train parents of young children, train school personnel who work with parents of young children, and make resource materials available to families statewide;

     (3)  Requiring the Families for R.E.A.L. Program to report to the Legislature and the Governor no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2012, rather than 2013;

     (4)  Specifying that beginning on July 1, 2013, any appropriations for the Families for R.E.A.L. Program shall require matching funds at a ratio of seventy-five percent in public funds to twenty-five percent in private funds; and

     (5)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     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. 289, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 289, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

____________________________

JILL TOKUDA, Chair