Report Title:

$ Families for R.E.A.L.

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to establish Families for R.E.A.L. programs in 4 departmental school districts: Honolulu, central, Kauai, and Hawaii and for research and development of the program.

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

462

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR FAMILIES FOR R.E.A.L. (RESOURCES FOR EARLY ACCESS TO LEARNING).

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that parents are the child's first and most important teachers. Brain research reveals that the formation of neural patterns that promote or inhibit learning and healthy development throughout life are dependent on the person's experiences as a very young child. Therefore, one of the best approaches to a child's education is to empower parents in their roles of parenting and teaching their children, age birth to five years, at home.

The Families for R.E.A.L. (Resources for Early Access to Learning) program, based on Minnesota's family education model, has proven to positively affect children's achievement. The emphasis is on empowering parents as their young children's first teachers, rather than relying upon public school instruction when the child is age five or six.

Families for R.E.A.L. is open to families from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Parents attend classes with their children once a week for nine weeks. Parents learn and share critical parenting and teaching skills, network with one another, learn about community resources, and become aware of what makes a child succeed.

Currently, there are three program sites in each of the following schools and districts: Pearl City Highlands Elementary School, Leeward District; Kapunahala Elementary School, Windward District; and Wailuku Elementary School, Maui District. Each Families for R.E.A.L. site serves three hundred fifty to five hundred families per year. Teachers of grades K-6 consistently report that children who attended Families for R.E.A.L. are more ready to learn than others who do not have the experience. No wonder, then, that each site has a waiting list of one hundred to five hundred families.

The family support services/parent-community networking centers program of the department of education plans for the Families for R.E.A.L. program to be established at fourteen school sites contiguous with each adult and community education school service area, plus modified models for Molokai, Lanai, and Maui.

The purpose of this Act is to make an appropriation for Families for R.E.A.L. to establish the program in four departmental school district sites which currently do not have this program: the Honolulu, Central, Kauai, and Hawaii districts. Schools in each district have stated that this program is critical in preparing families and their children at their earliest years for success in school and life itself.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $364,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002, to the Resources for Early Access to Learning (Families for R.E.A.L.) program to fund four sites in the following amounts:

One full-time parent educator $ 36,000

One full-time early childhood educator $ 36,000

One part time temporary teacher $ 15,000

Supplies, equipment, and other costs $ 4,000

Total for each site $ 91,000

Total for four sites $364,000

SECTION 3. The legislature also finds that the future of local early childhood family education programs is dependent upon research and development of this program and that a local longitudinal study of the effects of Families for R.E.A.L. on student achievement is highly desirable for accountability purposes.

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $25,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002, for research and development of the Families for R.E.A.L. program.

SECTION 5. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________