Report Title:

Education; Required Community Service

Description:

Requires the department of education to include community service as a graduation requirement for public high schools.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2627

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to education.

 

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

SECTION 1. Community service is an excellent way to train students for citizenship by engaging them in active civic participation. Community service is a way to explore careers and gain work skills. All students benefit from the lessons learned through such service, and mandating community service reaches students who may not otherwise participate. Community service requirements help public schools align with standards. Active participation of young adults in service activities is necessary to achieve a truly healthy community. The purposes of community service include:

(1) The psychological and social development of students;

(2) The intellectual and academic benefits to students;

(3) Civic education; and

(4) Community benefits.

The purpose of this Act is to establish community service as a graduation requirement for public high school students.

SECTION 2. The department of education shall:

(1) With the support and assistance of community organizations and businesses, recommend that each high school's career guidance program shall assist in finding service opportunities for students and shall update their information regularly;

(2) Create a system to monitor the progress of each student's community service hours and include an opportunity for personal reflection to help the student gain a perspective about their role in their community through service;

(3) Mandate that students perform thirty hours of service each high school year, for a total of one hundred twenty hours of service which shall be equivalent to one elective credit;

(4) Recommend that student community service shall not be completed during the school day as school attendance is required to ensure student success in academic courses;

(5) Recommend that community service be performed with an organization or business that has been inspected by a certified workplace safety inspector and that a counselor has prepared the student for community service; and

(6) Each student shall have a community service site supervisor who shall submit an evaluation of the student's community service experience.

SECTION 3. No appropriations shall be made to implement this Act, and each public high school shall select a service coordinator to assist students to and keep community service records.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon approval; provided that sections 2 and 3 shall take effect with the 2007-2008 school year.

INTRODUCED BY:

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