Report Title:

Principals; Information Systems and Infrastructure; Appropriation; Students With Disabilities

Description:

Requires the department to convert principal positions to twelve-month status. Appropriates funds to enable the department to support its information systems and infrastructure and continue its steps to fulfill the mandates of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004. Specifies the time period within which a hearing must be requested by a parent or guardian of a handicapped child, or by the department, on matters relating to the identification, evaluation, program, or placement of a handicapped child. (SB1661 HD2)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1661

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

S.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 2


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO EDUCATION.

 

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

PART I

SECTION 1. The legislature recognizes that the department of education is in the transitional stages of fulfilling the mandates of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, including granting more authority to school principals, improving the efficiency of the department through its newly-attained autonomy from other government agencies, and improving accountability.

The legislature also finds that as a part of this process, the department's information systems and infrastructure also require major upgrades to achieve certain goals over the next five years, including:

(1) Providing student longitudinal data analysis to assist in targeting specific student populations to raise student achievement;

(2) Increasing the graduation rate from eighty per cent of the entering freshmen class to ninety per cent;

(3) Reducing the number of seniors who do not graduate from five hundred to two hundred fifty;

(4) Increasing the level of parental involvement by providing online access to information relating to student attendance, homework, and progress;

(5) Allowing about ten thousand five hundred more teachers to access student information;

(6) Reducing the number of new teachers hired annually from one thousand six hundred to one thousand teachers by streamlining processes within the department's human resources system;

(7) Reducing the amount of time it takes to handle teacher transfers and assignments from five months to one month;

(8) Automating the academic and financial planning processes for all schools;

(9) Automating school accountability; and

(10) Supporting all personnel transferred to the department of education from the departments of accounting and general services, human resources development, human services, and other agencies.

The availability of funds is necessary to achieve these goals and to fulfill the mandates of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004.

Accordingly, the purpose of this part is to:

(1) Require the department to convert principal positions to twelve-month status; and

(2) Appropriate funds to enable the department to support its information systems and infrastructure and continue to fulfill the mandates of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004.

SECTION 2. The department of education shall take immediate steps to convert principal positions to twelve-month status with all due diligence. The department of education shall report on its failure to convert or the unfeasibility of converting principal positions to twelve-month status to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2006.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $         or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006 and the sum of $         or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007 to:

(1) Subsidize information systems projects;

(2) Provide for additional support personnel and training;

(3) Provide two additional data processing systems analyst IV and three additional data processing systems analyst V positions in fiscal year 2006-2007; and

(4) Continue the implementation of Act 51, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this part.

PART II

SECTION 4. The purpose of this part is to support children with disabilities and their families and to enable the department of education to efficiently address issues relating to providing a free, appropriate public education to children with disabilities by:

(1) Specifying the time period within which a hearing shall be requested by a parent or guardian of a handicapped child, or by the department, on matters relating to the identification, evaluation, program, or placement of a handicapped child; and

(2) Exempting the parent or guardian of a handicapped child from the time limits on requesting a hearing, when the failure to request the hearing was due to the misrepresentation or withholding of information by the department.

SECTION 5. Section 302A-443, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§302A-443[]] Administrative hearing procedures and subpoena power relating to the education of handicapped children. (a) An impartial hearing may be requested by any parent or guardian of a handicapped child, or by the department, on any matter relating to the identification, evaluation, program, or placement of a handicapped child[.]; provided that the hearing is requested:

(1) Within two years of the date the parent, guardian, or department knew or should have known about the alleged action that formed the basis of the request for a hearing; and

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), within ninety days of a unilateral special education placement, where the request is for reimbursement of the costs of the placement.

(b) Subsection (a) shall not apply to a parent or guardian of a handicapped child if the parent or guardian was prevented from requesting the hearing due to:

(1) Specific misrepresentations by the department that it had resolved the problem that formed the basis of the complaint; or

(2) The department's withholding from the parent or guardian information that was required by state or federal laws and regulations to provide a free, appropriate public education to a handicapped child.

(c) The department shall adopt rules that conform to the requirements of any applicable federal statutes or regulations pertaining to the impartial hearing based on the education of a handicapped child. The rules shall require that any party may be present at the proceeding, be accompanied and advised by counsel or individuals with special knowledge or training with respect to the problems of handicapped children, may require witnesses to be under oath, cross-examine witnesses, and obtain a written or electronic verbatim record of the proceedings.

[(b)] (d) Any party to these hearings or the hearings officer shall have the right to compel the attendance of witnesses upon subpoena issued by the hearings officer. The fees for attendance shall be the same as for the fees of witnesses before circuit court. In case of the failure of any person to comply with a subpoena, a circuit court judge of the judicial circuit in which the witness resides, upon application of the hearings officer, shall compel attendance of the person."

PART III

SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2010.