STAND. COM. REP. NO. 288

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1189

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1189 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PRESCHOOL OPEN DOORS PROGRAM,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Repeal the priority given by the preschool open doors program to children who are not eligible to attend public school kindergarten in the calendar year in which they turn five years of age because their birth date occurs after the kindergarten eligibility date; and

     (2)  Clarify that the term "at-risk children", as used in determining priority for the preschool open doors program, is as defined in section 302L-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Early Learning, State Public Charter School Commission, Kamehameha Schools, and Hawaii Children's Action Network.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Parents for Public Schools of Hawai‘i and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services and Parents and Children Together.

     Your Committees find that the preschool open doors program is Hawaii's school readiness program that provides critical subsidies for low to moderate income families sending their children to a licensed preschool to prepare them for kindergarten.  By providing priority for underserved or at-risk children or children who are not eligible to attend public school kindergarten in the calendar year in which they turn five years of age because of their date of birth occurring after the eligibility date, the preschool open doors program creates short-term and long-term benefits for children, individuals, and society as a whole.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by reinstating language that provides priority for the preschools open doors program to four-year-old children who are not eligible to attend public school kindergarten in the calendar year in which they turn five years of age because their birth date occurs after the kindergarten eligibility date.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1189, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1189, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Education,

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair

________________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair