STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2113

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2975

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2975 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY LEARNING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Executive Office on Early Learning to enter into contracts with third party providers for family child interaction learning programs.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Early Learning, Department of Education, Department of Human Services, University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Education, Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, Good Beginnings Alliance, Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, Hawai‘i Association for the Education of Young Children, Kamehameha Schools, Hui for Excellence in Education, Community Children's Council of Hawaii, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and one hundred sixty-three individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association and American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i.

     Your Committee finds that family and child interaction programs provide opportunities for parents and caregivers to participate with their child in learning opportunities.  These programs also serve to educate parents and caregivers on how to encourage their child's learning at home.  These programs are an integral part of the State's goal of providing a mixed-delivery early education learning system to ensure school readiness of Hawaii's children prior to entering kindergarten.

     If this measure is considered for passage by your Committee on Ways and Means, your Committee notes the Executive Office on Early Learning has requested that $1,000,000 be appropriated for the purposes of this measure.

     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. 2975 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair