STAND. COM. REP. NO. 777

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 843

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 843 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make various housekeeping amendments to the laws relating to early childhood education.

 

     Specifically, this measure:

 

(1)  Explicitly authorizes the Executive Office on Early Learning to use and expend federal funds for early learning education;

 

(2)  Defines "early childhood education" as a developmentally appropriate early childhood development and education program for children from birth until the time they enter kindergarten;

 

(3)  Deletes the definition of "early education"; and

 

(4)  Repeals the Board of Education's authority to conduct federally funded public early education programs for children.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Education, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, PHOCUSED, HEE Coalition, Good Beginnings Alliance, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Executive Office on Early Learning's responsibility to develop early education programs for children presently overlaps with the Department of Education's responsibility to develop education programs for children in kindergarten to the twelfth grade.  This measure clarifies that the Executive Office on Early Learning's responsibility is limited to pre-kindergarten children and that the Office has the authority to expend federal funds for early childhood education.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 843 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair