House Standing Committee on Education

Good afternoon, everyone. Reconvening the Joint Committee on Higher Education and Education. Today is. What day is today? Tuesday, February 11. It is a few minutes after 2pm we are first going to take up the 2pm joint agenda. We have one item for decision making on a matter that was deferred from February 5th.

And then we'll take the vote and then adjourn and then go into the Education only hearing. So, Members, the one Bill we have for DM today is House Bill 707 relating to the College Savings Program.

You'll recall that at the time we had a suggested amendment from the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities asking us if we could fold in the Hawaii Achieving a Better Life Experience, otherwise known as Able Savings Program.

We weren't sure if we could accommodate this suggested amendment due to the title, which is relating to the College Savings Program. The Able Program is much wider in scope.

So we spent the last few days checking in with the Department of the Attorney General and they advised us that there's actually no issue with the title due to, let's see, a case called Schwab vs. Ariyoshi from 1977 that requires a clear logical connection between two programs. So they said we're good. So that's good enough for me.

So, Members, you also recall that a few days ago our staff circulated a proposed HD one that reflected this language. So we are going to include. Let's see, we are going to amend the preamble to reflect that we are including this Able Program as well.

So then that's highlighted in yellow on starting on page 16, I'm sorry, line 16 on page one and ending at line five on page two. And we are expanding the purpose of this actual. So part A remains the same.

The Hawaii 529 accounts through the College Savings Program and then adding AB which is accounts through the Hawaii Able Program. In addition to that, we are adding a defective date of July 1st, 3000 to facilitate further discussion. And there are some technical, non substantive amendments that we'll be making for clarity, consistency and style. Members, any discussion?

Seeing none for Higher Education. The vote, please. HD1.

Thanks. Chair, voting on HB 707. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair both voting aye. Representative Evslin.

Aye.

Representative Capella. Aye. Representative Keela. Excused. Representative La Chica. Aye. Representative Olds. Aye. Representative Sayama. Representative Woodson. Aye. Representative Muraoka. Excuse. Excused. Representative. Sorry. Sorry about that. I didn't see you come in. Gotcha. Representative Souza. Thank you. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Education Committee Members, same recommendation. Vice Chair for the vote.

Okay. Members voting on House Bill 707, same recommendation. Pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote. Aye, Representative Amato. Aye, Representative Evslin. Aye. Aye. Representative Garrett. Aye. Representative Capella. Aye. Representative Kilas. Excused. Representative Old. Aye. Representative Sayama. Aye. Representative Muraoka. Aye Representative Souza. Aye. Okay Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you.

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to your Committee on education. It is 2:09PM and we are in room 309. Thank you for being here today for our hearing. We are going to take up several measures on school meals, school transportation, as well as different school bills. So first up, we have two measures relating to universal school meals.

So I know there's different testifiers that will be testifying very similarly on both measures.

So just a request, if you want to testify on both bills, feel free to do that, you know, and share your testimony on both or so that when we go through the second bill later can either have a shortened testimony or stand on the your testimony on your first testimony. So that said, let's go on the first.

Our first measure, which is House Bill 424, which would beginning the next school year, provide free breakfast and lunch to those on free and reduced lunch. First up, we have Department of Education providing comments.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson. Vice Chair La Chica. Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent of the DOE. The department stands on a written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you.

Next we have HSTA providing comments on Zoom.

Aloha. It's Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. Aloha Chair and Vice Chair, we are in favor of universal free meals for all students. Our members made this a priority this session. And while we support House Bill 424, we do like House Bill 757 better as an equity vehicle. So here's my story.

You've gotten all the facts and figures this session. Last semester, a student came to me at lunch and had a kid at my door. And this, this boy, I'm five foot and this boy is easily six foot tall. He's huffing, he's puffing, his hands are at his sides and he's trying not to cry.

And the other student told me that in the lunchroom his tray got taken away from him because he had too much debt to have lunch today. No 12 year old should not be able to eat based on debt. That kid was so hurt.

And that kid also knew, the other kid knew to bring them to me because I always stock food for my students. Teachers all over the state are feeding hungry kids out of our salaries that barely allow us to feed our families. This is a policy fix we can make.

That student came to my room to sweep and sharpen pencils all semester. He even signed up for my computer science class this semester because I invested in him. We need to invest in our students. The Department of Ed focuses on social emotional learning. We call that SEL.

There is no better SEL in the world than feeding hungry kids. School meals are school supplies. Please support this bill. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Hawaii Food Industry Association in support. Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support. Hawaii Youth Services Network in support. Democratic Party of Hawaii in support. Hawaii Public Health Institute in support. In person.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Nate Hix with Hawaii Public Health Institute in support of this measure and also asking that this covers all students. I think the question is pretty clear. How much do we value ending hunger in our schools? Should Keiki eat or not?

We know that the price of this is very low, right? The DOE budget every year is about $2 billion. To feed all kids is about $20 million, 1% of the cost. We just had a $1.4 billion tax cut. We could feed kids for thousands of years had we not done that.

So the question is, where are our priorities? Do we think ending hunger is important or not? Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Next we have Amy Miller, Hawaii Food Bank in support. Aloha Care in support. Hawaii Appleseed offering comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members. Hawaii Appleseed stands on its comments. And we actually, of course, support any measure that would get us closer to universal free school meals. Our preferred bill is, of course, HB 757. So I'm going to Reserve most of my comments for that. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We also have Mike G. Senior in support. Four individuals in support. That's all we have for our testifier list. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 424? Yes. Please go ahead. Department of Education.

I'd like to clarify. We support the intent of the bill and we spoke earlier. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Deputy Superintendent. Okay. Anyone online wishing to testify? Okay, members, any questions? House Bill 424.

I have a question. DOE, please. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Is it a requirement that there be a cost difference between breakfast and lunch as it relates to school meals, reduced school meals? Is there a reason as to why there's a cost difference between breakfast and lunch for reduced school meals or school meals in general?

A cost difference.

You mean breakfast is cheaper than lunch, right? What's the rationale for that? Superintendent?

Keith Hayashi, Superintendent. The. There is a difference between the cost for breakfast and lunch. The, the lunch costs more to, to create, to make.

It's simply that?

Yes. I believe so.

Thank you so much. And you know, there's been discussions, formal discussions on increasing the amount of cost per student per meal. If that comes to fruition, do we know how many students that would be impacted? Defined as how many more students would qualify for free and reduced lunch?

The increase. So just to be sure I'm understanding the question correctly, chair, is that would there be an increase in the cost if we were to raise the cost to 50? Was it is the question of 50%? Yes. So there would be an increase for those, for our students and their families.

How would that impact the free and reduced lunch population? How is that calculated?

Free meals would remain at free as they qualify for free lunches under the, under the federal requirements. And the reduced would remain reduced. And whatever cost that they pay, the students who are paying full, their cost would increase, which takes into account for all students the total cost that is needed to create a meal.

And so who determines? I mean, is that determined by the Department of Ag? U.S. Department of Ag. Define as how many additional students would be in jeopardy of not being able to afford their school meals.

What I'm trying to say is if in fact you're increasing the cost per meal, then there's going to be a larger population that is going to struggle to pay that cost. So does the department have an idea as to what that universe looks like?

We can get that information for you, chair. I do believe that what we are looking at is, you're absolutely right that there is individuals who pay in full would be paying more out of pocket for that meal cost.

We are looking at helping to support those students who fall within the Alice category, those students who don't currently qualify for reduced lunch meals, but qualify within the Alice income category.

And can you define Alice, just for the edification of the public?

Those families who are identified as assets limited, income constrained employed.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Chair.

Go ahead. Representative Muraoka.

Hi. So with the request, with the request for increase, when was the last time we did a study on portion sizes? Because that's, that's coming from my community.

That's a big thing is, you know, like, like she said, we get some pretty big students and when we giving them these portions, even though they can eat that, they're still hungry. So that second meal, I know when I was in school, double lunch was on big things. So I grew up on the blue ticket.

I grew up on free meals. But even my double lunch, my second lunch back then, thankfully was 45 cents or whatever. Are you guys increasing the portion sizes?

Thank you for the question. Representative Muraoka. We do follow the, we're required to follow actually the USDA guidelines on portioning, which is, which is predetermined. So that's what we're required to follow.

As much as I understand what you're saying, that if students can eat more, we require it under the USDA for reimbursable meals so that we can clean for reimbursement. Those portion sizes are set.

Right. So is there a way we can look into that? Maybe. I mean, we're fighting for freedom for free. We might as well feed them till they're full or give them proper sized meals.

We can definitely take a look into that. It's my understanding, though, that for meals to be, to qualify for USDA reimbursement, there needs to be certain food categories that are represented on the plate as well as the portion size. But we can take a look into that and get back to you on that. Thank you.

Members, any other questions? Thank you so much. Representative Hix, a question for Hawaii Public Health Institute. Thank you. Thank you. Nate, in your testimony earlier, you had talked about the percentage as it relates to the Department of Education's total budget.

If you can share with the committee how you, the overall numbers for how you came up with the revenue cost for that and as well as how many. In your testimony, you also mentioned that half of struggling families are currently not eligible to receive the free and reduced price lunch. So if you can also expand on that.

Yeah, sure. So, yeah, currently, based on current participation rates and meal prices, I think the DOE is collecting about $20 million in prices per year. So that's, you know, roughly going to be the cost that we're losing in revenue. And then there's going to be some increased participation rate because now it's free.

And so that's kind of where the estimate cost comes from. When it comes to talking about the students who are struggling and those who are eligible for free school meals.

You have to have an income of below 185%, of 185% of the federal poverty level to be eligible for reduced price meals and below 130% for free meals. For a family of four, 185% of the federal poverty line is around $66,000 annually.

And so if you're earning a dollar over that, you are in the paid meal category. So you're going from 40 cents for lunch up to, I think, $2.75 for lunch immediately, just because you're a dollar over.

And so, you know, the Alice report and other calculations estimate the cost just to make ends meet in Hawaii at about 300% of the federal poverty level. And so anybody who's in that 185% to 300% category are these folks who are struggling to make ends meet and not eligible for these subsidy programs.

About half of the people who are below that 300% federal. Half of the families below that 300% federal poverty level are above the 185%. And so there's this huge gap group. I know this isn't like, news to anybody. We all know, right.

So many people are struggling to make ends meet and are not falling into these subsidy categories. That's why Alice kind of exists. But we also know that the paperwork, the owners, the difficulty in trying to figure out who exactly is deserving. Right.

If we, you know, were to go just to 300% or just to this other new threshold, you're still having that massive benefits cliff where you make a dollar too much, and all of a sudden you're not eligible for these subsidies. And this is kind of why we don't set up means testing for public education. Right.

The wealthy folks are eligible to go to public education without having to fill out income paperwork because we value education as a society. Meals, breakfast, lunch is part of the educational experience. You can't learn on an empty stomach. And so that's why free school meals needs to be available for everybody.

We're putting a massive barrier on this education by not allowing just the ability to eat food every day.

Thank you so much. So $20 million is what is collected in fees that's being charged. Do you know how much is collected in federal revenue for reimbursement participation?

That's a good question. I think it's around 60 million, but somebody else might but have better data than I do.

Okay. And then so again, to confirm, a family four needs to be earning $66,000 for reduced price lunch. What is it for free to qualify for free lunch?

$46,000.

You need to earn $46,000 for family of four to qualify for free lunch.

Yeah. Or less.

Otherwise you have to pay $2.75 a meal.

Above reduced price would be above the 66k. So reduced price. So if you're at 47k, you're paying, I think 47.

So it's like 13, 14 bucks a week for a student who is earning that for a family for belonging to that income level.

Yeah. So for a family of four. Right. If you have two kids and you're not eligible for free and reduced, you know, that's $1,000 a year just out of your pocket to, you know, pay for your kid to go to school and make sure they're fed.

Thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. Let's move on to the next bill. House Bill 757. This is our universal free school breakfast and lunch bill. First up, we have Department of Education offering comments.

Good afternoon, chair, vice chair. Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent. We stand on our written testimony supporting the intent of this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next we have Department of Health offering comments.

Good afternoon. The Department of Health stands on its testimony and is offering comments.

Thank you so much. Next we have Mayor Bisson, County of Maui in support. Council Member Jen Kagiwata in support. County of Hawaii, Department of Research and Development in support. Hawaii Youth Services Network in support. AAUW of Hawaii in support. Go ahead.

Chair, vice chair and members of committee. My name is Yonghee Overlee, and I volunteer as public policy chair for AAUW. I actually submitted testimony for Indivisible Hawaii as well. So I just do it together. In addition to what we submitted, I wanted to share with you my- my experience of social stigma.

The high school my son went to, I was volunteering for PTA, had our first food bank in the county. We are very proud because the neighborhood the school was in, half of the kids were on reduced to lunch or free lunch. And it was food, dessert, fresh vegetable, dessert. There was no access.

There was no grocery store nearby. So we brought in food bank to be able to provide fresh vegetables and fruits and some canned food for dinner. Because a lot of these students didn't get dinner. Lunch was all they got. Right. So we thought, oh, sure, if we make it available to everybody, we'll remove the social stigma.

So we announced that this was available for everybody and no high school student came to pick it up. Weeks went by, we were scratching our head. So somebody came up with the idea, let's put it in a gym bag instead of grocery bag. They got picked up. Lesson learned. Oh, my God.

It matters a lot to that age group. So this is why we did not submit testimony for HB 424, but we submitted for this one. Thank you for listening.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next, we have HSTA in support.

Aloha, chair and vice chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin. And on behalf of HSTA, like we shared in the other testimony, we do like this vehicle better because it's the better vehicle for equity this session. For my testimony today, I've heard so many reasons why universal free meals can't happen.

So I'm going to kind of try to debunk some of these. I hear, but Mili, the paperwork. Okay, so I'm a teacher and we know little things about paperwork. If you get the right people together, you're going to find a way to figure out the paperwork. Don't worry about your Title 1 numbers. We can do it.

Feed hungry kids. When I brought kids recently to the Senate Education side to testify in a similar measure, one of the committee members told the kids, well, the reason we can't do this is because kids waste food. That's not the question. Wasting food is not the question. We should feed hungry kids.

But Mili, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Seven year olds do not need to be worthy of food. Like, this is just a full stop. We need to feed hungry- hungry kids. During Covid we fed everybody and it was great.

And the first day back after Covid, the kids ran to the lunchroom at my school to get their food and were devastated to find out it wasn't there.

At my school, every day you will see kids standing around the trash cans asking other kids if you're going to eat that and taking food that was going to a trash can so they can go ahead and eat that. Legislators, please go visit your local schools during lunchtime.

You will see exactly what I'm talking about and any teacher can tell you how this works. Feeding hungry kids requires political will. Teachers and students have public behind us. And now, please act with us. Let's feed hungry kids because school meals are school supplies. Thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing that. Next, we have Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action in support. We have Green Party of Hawaii in support. We have Malama Kauai in support. Indivisible Hawaii in support. We have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support.

Faith Action for Community Equity in support. Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks in support on Zoom.

Aloha chair, vice chair, members of the committee.

I'm Nicole Woo from Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. I don't think I can tell the stories any better than Mili just did. So I would love to present you with some facts and figures and some technical support as you figure this out. I've been working on school meals for decades.

Before I moved to Hawaii, I worked at the Food Research and Action Center. It's probably the top national anti hunger organization in the country. And I was the- this organization's school meal specialist. So I worked on federal laws and regulations and I visited school meals in many different states.

So even after this hearing, please feel free to ask me questions. Universal free meals are something that many other states are trying to do. And as Nate from HIFI mentioned, a lot of families in their state, you know, a family of four that's making 67,000, they don't qualify for free or reduced price meals.

Meanwhile, Alice Families here in Hawaii, according to Aloha United Way, they need $108,000 to afford the bare minimum costs. So we know there's a large group of families who are Alice families or below Alice, who can- who are not getting the reduced price and have to pay the full price of meals.

And so that's one of the reasons that we really think free meals for everyone is so important. Administratively, this actually helps schools. They no longer have to collect the meal payments, they no longer have to chase down parents for school meal debt, and they don't have to collect the school meal applications and make those eligibility determinations.

So there's also a cost savings for the schools. That's not in any of these calculations that we're presenting. I've done my own calculations. I come out pretty close to what a lot of other advocates are saying.

If we were to have absolutely no increase in meal participation, which is not what's probably going to be happening, but just as a baseline, I come out with about $19.2 million a year. And that's just based on the amount of school meal payments that we wouldn't be collecting.

And then to answer a few of the questions that came up for the prices for school meals, the reduced prices for lunches and breakfasts, those are set by the federal law. There's a maximum price that you can charge for reduced price meals. There's no similar law or regulation at the federal level for the full price of meals.

So that's just, I think Chair Woodson asked that question. On the calories. Yes. There are dietitians in Washington, D.C. who try to make sure these meals are nutritious, low sodium, low fat, all that kind of stuff. And they also have calorie minimum and maximums for breakfast and lunch for elementary, middle and high.

And so I totally hear, you know, it's- it's- there are some students here who are very large students who need more calories than maybe what the federal rules are saying.

But on the flip side, there's a concern about obesity across the country, and that's why there is a maximum number of calories that these different meals are allowed to be served. And if they- if our state were to go past these calorie maximums, we would lose our federal reimbursements.

That's like up to $6 per lunch and up to $3.07 per breakfast that the federal government is providing. And Nate has a really good memory. We're getting about $60 million a year in lunch subsidies from the USDA. And currently we're getting about $14 million a year in breakfast subsidies from the USDA.

And I think one last thing I took a note on, it's like, how many of our students are free, reduced price, unpaid? About 70% of the students who take school meals are free. That's about 93,000 kids a day. And about 40,000 are reduced price for paid kids. So hopefully all those numbers help you out again.

I'm happy to talk more and provide more technical support since I do have a background in it. Thank you.

Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you so much. Next we have Purple Maya foundation in support, Aloha Care in support, Hawaii Food Industry Association in support, Save Medicaid Hawaii in support. And then in person, I believe we have some Castle High School students. Please go ahead.

And if each of you would like to come up and please state your name and share your position. Thank you.

Aloha. My name is Kira Torres. I'm a student from Castle High School. Free meals would be more convenient and better for families who have to pay for multiple children who are in the education system. Not all families qualify for free meals, even if they're making ends meet.

As someone who is able to qualify for the free meal program, I empathize deeply for those who can't afford to refill their children's school meal account. I have seen students meals get taken away from them because they don't have enough money on their account.

And I know there are a lot of students who rely on these meals because they don't have access to food anywhere else. Families also struggle every day with personal expenses just to be able to continue living in Hawaii.

This is why I'm asking to please support this bill so we can work with the DOE to come up with a solution to make this happen for us. Mahalo for your time.

Thank you so much.

Yeah. And if you guys can come closer so that you can go one after the other, please. Go ahead. Thank you.

Aloha, chair and members of the committee. My name is Halia Tom Jardine. I'm a student at James B. Castle High School and I strongly support House Bill 757 because no student should have to worry about where their next meal will come from while trying to learn.

Hawaii's high cost of living makes it difficult for families to afford food. Yet not all students qualify for free and reduced meals. This gap leaves many without access to proper nutrition directly impacting their ability to focus, learn and succeed in school.

Providing free meals to all students ensures that everyone has the nourishment they need to thrive, regardless of their financial situation. This bill is not just about food. It's about fairness, academic success and student well being. Eliminating meal costs removes financial stress from families, erases stigma and allows students to focus on learning rather than hunger.

I urge you to pass House Bill 757 and invest in a healthier, stronger future for Hawaii's youth. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Go ahead.

Aloha. My name is Tili Kahopi and I'm a junior at Castle High School. So I have free school meals and some of my friends come up to me during school and ask me to get them breakfast or lunch because they have no money in their accounts. Also in my family, I'm the second oldest of six.

My younger brothers don't qualify for school meals because we have different moms. My dad and my stepmom struggle every year to put money in my three brothers meal accounts. Like what Mr. Hix said, my dad and my stepmom make too much money to qualify for reduced school meals, but they don't make enough money to afford school meals.

Thank you so much for listening so much.

Anyone else from Castle High School? Ms. Parsons, did you want to testify? Please, go ahead.

Okay. Aloha, chair and vice chair, members of the committee, I am here today to offer my strong support for HB 757. This legislation represents a crucial step towards ensuring the well being and educational success of our youth. As a teacher, I have witnessed firsthand some of the struggles that many families face.

One, on a weekly basis I receive these yellow slips of papers indicating students have a negative balance. The amount is covered so just their name is showing. So as teachers were not directed as to how to hand them out.

And so for me, I just call them to my desk and I hand it to them and they just say again, sorry. Second, on a weekly basis as well, students will ask if I have anything to eat.

And lastly, over the years I hear over and over again that their parents have to put money on their younger siblings account because they have to eat. Unlike intermediate and high school students, they can choose to eat.

Some may argue about the cost of this program, but I'm sure with all the smart people that we have in this state, we can come up with a solution. I believe that the long term benefits of investing in our children's well being far outweigh the financial costs.

So it's not just about feeding our kids, but investing in their future, strengthening our communities and ensuring that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Mahalo.

Mahalo, Ms. Parsons. Mahalo for being here, taking time out of your day to be here with your students. Next up, we have Hawaii Public Health Institute.

Aloha. Nate Hix, Hawaii Public Health Institute. I mean, it's either we care about feeding 100 kids or we don't. Yeah, we have to pass this bill. It's ridiculous. People are spending $400 a night to stay in Waikiki and the kids who live here can't eat. It's ridiculous. We need to do better.

Thank you so much. Catholic Charities Hawaii in support. We have Early Childhood Action Strategy in support. Maui Food bank in support. Hawaii Food bank in support. Chamber of Sustainable Commerce in support. Hawaii Appleseed in support.

Aloha chair, vice chair, members of the committee, Daniela Spoto with Hawaii Appleseed. A lot's already been said. I think there's a lot of experts in the room. We've gotten a lot of the numbers. Maybe the one thing I could add is I know there's other proposals circulating out there.

One of the concerns that has not been mentioned is that there are a lot of kids out there that are eligible that are currently not receiving meals for other reasons. And there's a lot of kids that just fall through the cracks because they have difficulty submitting their paperwork. They have language barriers.

They may fear giving their information to a government agency in a hostile federal environment. And so we think that the full, you know, offering this to all students, regardless of what kinds of paperwork they have to submit is important.

And so we encourage you to pass this bill over some of the others that would incrementally get us there because there's some kids that really needed that are still aren't getting it. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We have Light of the World Health Care LLC in support. Hawaii Hunger- Hawaii Hunger Action Network in support.

Chair, we still stand on our written testimony [inaudible].

Thank you so much. Hawaii Kids Can in support.

Aloha, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica. Members of the Committee, apologies for the laptop. I want to get this right. So we. I am Erica Nakanishi-Stanis with Hawaii Kids Can. We're here in strong support of House Bill 757. And I'd like to call out specifically why we're in support of 757 over House Bill 424.

I want to share an anecdote with you from my previous life as a Japanese bureaucrat. It's an adventure. Please come with me. I used to work with immigrant communities, specifically people who did not speak Japanese, who did not look Japanese. And we know that Japan is a disaster prone area.

And so part of our role was to help prepare our most vulnerable residents for the inevitable disaster scenario. Now, I learned from this that removing administrative barriers is absolutely critical because we created translated documents about how to prepare, what to evacuate, what to bring with you.

And we made them available just like some other measures would make financial aid available to people and maybe more people. And then March 11 happened. The earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown, acid rain, rumors, people living in gyms for months.

And it was disproportionately for the foreign communities who did not have access to resources, who did not have access to. To knowledge of where to go to protect themselves. Right now, this isn't about food. It's a parallel.

But my point is that if you do not remove the access barriers for the people who need them the most, you risk providing not very much at all. And you're stuck with a stigma and an effect that lasts months, years.

And in this case, the national debate talks about which adult is responsible for taking advantage of free and reduced priced lunch or making sure that they provide for their children. But when children go hungry, we are all responsible. It is every adult's responsibility. So we urge your strong support and passage of bills, House Bill 757 specifically.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay, now we have over. We have 144 individuals providing testimony in support, one offering comments and one in opposition. That's it for our testifier list. Is there anyone else in person wishing to testify? Please go ahead.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Suzanne Sheldon with Aloha United Way. And apologies, we tried to do late testimony. Aloha United Way is in very strong support of this bill for the same reasons that many others are and more so 757 because of the universal elements.

We know from the Alice report that has been mentioned earlier that there are many families that are well above the federal poverty line. There are also families about 1 in 5 that are above the Alice threshold that struggle with food security.

And so we feel that this is a way to reach all children who have needs for food. We also, as we've been talking to our community, we hear these same stories of stigma with having to stand in two different lines, going with a green ticket, blue ticket, whatever color it is, teachers handing them notices.

We've seen adults who now have six figure income come to tears when they're talking about their memories of this as a child and what that did to their level of schooling. Speaking stigma, isolation. We can't solve some of our educational crisis without solving the food crisis. And this is a very straightforward. You're getting 19, $20 million.

It's not just about feeding kids. It's going to help them thrive, graduate high school, get better jobs, build our economy. So there's all these follow on things that when we look at cost, this might actually be a cost savings measure.

And we just appreciate your strong support for this and for the children that are facing stigma and facing hunger right now. Thank you.

Thank you. If you can make sure that we have a copy of your testimony so we can. I will.

Anyone else wishing to testify? Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you.

Chair, Vice Chair and Committee. My, my name is Manning Tate. I'm with the Nalu Studies Program. We're a nonprofit that serves at risk, underserved youth here in Hawaii. And we dig back, we, we provide education support and, and high school college credit.

But when you dig back to why these kids are actually in the situations they're in, it really does come down to access to basic resources and nutrition and food being critical a key part of that. We work with Olomon and other schools as well as HYCF.

So I've been curious as a scientist, how do they end up in those places?

If we can just provide a healthy meal so the brain can function properly and they can make better decisions for themselves as well as academically, I think we can really do go a long way to helping these gentlemen here increase our grades and provide academic success for our students.

So thank you guys very much for listening to us. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to testify on this Bill, please come ahead. One more in the audience. State your name, please.

Hi, my name is Mariah Minor. I'm here with the Castle High School Students. I work for a small nonprofit called Key Project in Kahalu. And our big one of our major goals for the Past two years has been feeding our community. I partnered with Castle High School and I started a noon Hawaii Action Club.

And part of that club is coming to the school, talking to the students about how we can get out in the community and make a difference. But I also provide lunch. My grant allows that could provide lunch for the students. And that's been a huge blessing.

But one thing I wanted to say was when I was in school and lunches were an issue, children left school. And I feel like if money wasn't an issue and they could just walk up and grab some food, kids wouldn't leave at lunch and skip the rest of their day. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Anyone online wishing to testify? Yes, please go ahead.

I belong with the Castle kids. I would be there if I didn't recently have a disability. I was teaching English up until just a little while ago. So like an English teacher does, I would like to share my testimony. My name is Elizabeth Panacea and I urge you to pass House Bill 757.

Because no child should have to choose between learning and hunger. Yet in classrooms across Hawaii, that choice is being made for them. Hunger does not discriminate. It does not care if a family earns just a little too much to qualify for free meals. It does not care if a child is too ashamed to ask for help.

But we should care. Because when students are hungry, they do not learn. When students are hungry, they do not thrive. When students are hungry, their potential is stifled because they even pick up. Because even when they pick up a pencil. One in three households in Hawaii struggles with food insecurity.

I think you heard that nearly 29% of households with children do not have enough to eat. That is nearly one in three keiki in our schools who are trying to learn on empty stomachs. Universal school meals are a proven solution. Schools implementing them report better academic performance, improve behavior and higher attendance. This is not about charity.

It is about equity. It is about dignity. It is about ensuring that every student has the same opportunity to succeed. And as Queen Liliokalani once said, e nanamai aho lohe e paaka waa e Hana Kalima. This Bill is the work. The time for hesitation has passed. Please pass House Bill 757.

Because feeding our children is not a privilege, it is a promise. Mahalo for listening English teacher.

Thank you so much. Anyone else online wishing to testify? Okay, seeing none. Members questions?

I'll Start. Can I please call the Department of Health, please? Thank you for being here for your testimony. Can you Please explain how the community eligibility provision works succinctly.

Okay. I'm afraid in terms of the community eligibility provision, I would have to get back to you on that and probably the Department of Education would be the better organization to respond to that question in terms of the federal proposal of the funding cut.

Thank you. Does DOE have an answer to that question? A General answer? If not, that's okay. It's geared towards. DOH.

Yep. Ken Kakasako with the Department of Education. Yeah. The CEP program is a, is a program that does provide for the schools that qualify free lunch for every student, regardless of their socioeconomic background within that school, as long as that school does meet a certain threshold. What is the threshold for that? Right now I believe it's 40.

I gotta get. Well, the. At the federal level, they have dropped it down to 25%. But as state level Department of Health had, had indicated, we're not sure where that threshold is going to change with the, with the current Administration.

Okay, thank you. And then I have a question for DOE. If no one else has questions.

Go ahead. For, Oh I'm sorry.

I apologize. Soup. Yeah, go ahead.

Okay. Thank you for HIFI. Nate Hicks. I think following up on that federal, the federal funding and kind of how that allocates down. We've talked previously as well about how some of that funding is allocated. I was wondering if you could kind of outline a little bit of that for our Committee as well in relation.

Yeah. So federal funding, there are many sources that come into the state. Some of it we use based on the current free and reduced lunch participation rate. And so Title 1 funds are something that come into the state based on our census data and then get allocated based off, you know, poverty levels by the state.

And so CEP funding is another source of funding that comes in based on states that have high poverty rates. And so if we do move to a more universal free school meals model, we can make sure that we're not just falling off different cliffs for different families.

And so the federal funding levels have increased in other states that have participated in the free school meals programs. And so if you look at California, if you look at Minnesota, if you look at these other states, we know that, you know, based on current situations, federal funding rates have increased.

And so this is not something that, you know, we should be concerned with. This is something that we can, you know, look to other states as examples and saying we can feed our kids and we can increase the amount of money that we're bringing in from the federal level.

A quick follow up, Chair. Good with that. I know you mentioned other states. California is one of those states. Right. And they continue to, even if they've implemented like a universal school meals program, they continue to have those reduced. The free and reduced lunch applications are still turned in.

And is there any growth that they're seeing after this program is applied?

Yeah, I think there's concerns for many folks that if we go to this free school meals model that the paperwork that students turned in that we use for federal and reimbursement would decline. But we've seen in California specifically that their participation rate has increased.

And so, you know, as long as we're doing a good job with trying to get the paperwork turned in, we can continue to see increases in free and reduced lunch participation rate, increased rates in federal funding like California has done. And there are other benefits that go along with it. Right.

So families who are going to be eligible for free school meals because of this potential program, there are other benefits that go along with the paperwork. Right. So the summer, the sun books, the summer EBT that we passed last year, they would be eligible for that program.

And so there are many incentives that we can increase the paperwork participation rate.

Thank you. Thank you so much Chair.

Members, any other questions?

Okay, deal. Thank you, Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent for being here. And so Mr. Hicks just mentioned a couple of federal funding sources. That was going to be my follow up question. Title 1 or Title Title 1 funding, CEP, USDA funding was mentioned earlier.

Do we know the universe of how much we receive in federal funds for reimbursement or grant program, block grant programming for schools and meals?

We can get that number for you.

Okay, so some of the testifiers, you know, they, they spoke, I wrote some of the things this like it really stood out like one in five that are above the Alice threshold. They struggle to, to pay for these school meals. Has the Department given any serious thought to actually requesting this be folded into their budget?

The universal proposal?

Thank you very much for the question, Chair. Currently in looking at, I know individuals have provided testimony on the different costs associated with various levels of meals. We estimate to cover our Alice families, approximately $11.7 million will be needed on top of, to cover those students who are currently eating.

We also anticipate above the current base allocation an additional 44.5 million for Universal free meals. Again based on students who are, based on our current council students who are eating.

So that number keeps going up. It was I think 30 million last year. It's a significant percentage growth. What is the rationale for that. I believe it is the even if you CPI it, if you index it, that would be, it seems higher than it should be for the 30 million.

That's the, that's a total. That's the amount that, that I was given. I can get back to you in terms of how that number was arrived at. I do know that there are additional costs associated with, with food costs that have gone up.

I'm not sure if exactly that that's the only reason, but we can definitely get back to you with that information.

And the Department, you know, year over year there are increase non recurring appropriation requests that exceed $30 million, that exceed $44 million. Those are definitely justifiable. But just at the base level it seems like this is something that the Department should be requesting for their budget is what is the rationale as to why that doesn't happen?

And I'm just trying to understand, trying to understand your focus rationale.

Chad, let me get back to with our school food service folks and then I can definitely get that information to you. One second, please.

Sorry. Chair so we do request a base budget for school meals, about 69 million a year for meals in General. So the numbers we're actually adding are in addition to that amount that we're already asking for.

So to ask for a larger number would, would make it hard for us then to do our budget when we also are supposed to looking at curriculum and other asks that we have as well. Because a $40 million ask would suddenly eclipse a lot of what we're asking for in other areas in education.

But that 69 million doesn't include universal school. No, it does not. It's just to cover what we are covering currently. Okay. Thank you so much. Chair One more question for Mrs. Wu. She's still here. Thank you. Sue. Thank you for Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks.

Hello, Chair.

Thank you. You cited like your work at the federal level. Have there been any studies that indicate the net costs per this type of program? You referenced that there might be some cost savings through the reduction of administrative burden, et cetera.

Some of the other testifiers mentioned that there might be some savings per if we were to move forward with this proposal. Do you have any studies that show like what the nest net cost would be? If you can extrapolate that for the State of Hawaii?

That's a really good question. I don't know of any that have been able to quantify the administrative savings, but I can take a look and I think a lot of us are willing to take A look and see if there's anything out there. It's hard because every school system is different, every district is different.

So we would really need to understand from DOE, you know, some of the costs that go into the meals.

I think that would be helpful just like a like size school district, our like population size district. If we can get those numbers, it would help us try to create a strong case to push this bill forward.

Yeah, I'll take a look. I have never seen one though, but I'll take a look for sure.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Members, questions? Just one question for Hawaii Appleseed. So, Hawaii Appleseed—thank you—also provided in your testimony a chart just breaking down the different revenue costs. So, you actually provided the Committee Members this data.

If you can share with the Committee the breakdown as well, that would be helpful, based on some of the questions and comments that were shared.

Yeah. So, the third page of our testimony has a pie chart in it. It's—that data is taken directly from the DOE website, from their fourth quarter financial report, under the food services. So, our numbers are a little different than what was provided in their testimony, but not too far off.

So, the federal reimbursements we showed as $71.9 million and the State General funds as 80.04 million. The parent copayments—that is that little teal piece of the pie. That's what we estimate the—well, that's what the current cost that they're receiving that goes to a special fund from parents.

That smaller little, tiny piece is for second meals, and you know, teacher meals or adult meals. So, all of that goes into a special fund and that's what would be covered by this Bill.

And I think that's why some—so much of our, our cost estimates have varied from the DOE's is because they're looking at a per meal cost. What they are paying for a meal, which I think this in testimony was $8.98. What we're looking at is just what the parents are paying.

So, that cost that they're paying is already being covered. They're already in their budget request and what this Bill would cover is that additional piece that is lost from that special fund.

So, again, to summarize what you shared, because the state already subsidizes $80 million, it already covers the cost for preparing those meals. We already get reimbursements in the cost of $71 million. So, we would only cover the gap that comes in via application fees from the payroll.

Yes, that would be the lost revenue from this Bill.

Have you heard anything at the Federal level, what—how the federal reimbursements would be affected in the current, with the current Administration?

There has been the potential that that CEP threshold that was mentioned—it's currently at 25%. Hawaii is set—theirs is a little bit higher because of the way CEP works.

If you want to get reimbursed at 100% of meals, you'd have to be at 42.5%—or 46.5%. So, that's kind of the threshold that Hawaii has set. One of the proposals circulating around, at the federal level right now, would raise that threshold to 60% and different estimates are showing that, you know, some schools could fall off.

A significant chunk of schools could fall off.

Thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. Let's move on to House Bill 1075. This would change the law to reduce the amount that Department of Education is charging, to 25% of school meals—to no less than 25% of school meal costs. So, first up, we have Department of Education.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair. Dean Uchida, Department of Education. The Department stands on—stands on its written testimony supporting this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have HSTA in support.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin, on behalf of HSTA, we will stand on our written testimony. I will just add, because we've been talking about school lunch.

Please know that if students have obligations on their accounts, which is like unpaid lunch debt, at least in my middle school, they can miss out on class party days. They cannot be allowed to walk in the eighth-grade promotion ceremonies. I think a lot of folks don't know that. So, just a little food for thought. Aloha.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus, in support. Democratic Party of Hawaii, in support. Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks, in support.

Aloha. Hello again. Just to let you know about this, this Bill removes the state requirement that the price, the full price for school meals, be at least half of the costs of DOE producing them. And just to let you know, there is no federal mandate around the full price level for school meals.

This is just something that, for some reason, years ago, Hawaii put into law. So, it is a restriction that we don't have to have. And last month, at the Board of Education meeting, there was a proposal to increase the cost of meals to match what the law is saying.

That would have put us at the level—that would have put our school meal prices at, or above, the 90th percentile for school meal prices in the whole nation. There was a survey done recently. Our meal prices would have gone out of line with what kids are paying in other parts of the country.

So, it seems like this law just sort of restricts—restricts our state in a way that's not necessary. So, I support this Bill, which would give us more flexibility around school meals. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Hi Phi, in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Nate Hicks, Hawaii Public Health Institute, in support. Why are we raising the price of meals? People are struggling already. And I also wanted to note that we did some polling on support for free school meals and 82% of the local voting population is in support of free school meals.

So, not only can we help people, but we can represent the communities that are in need. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. We have Hawaii Food Bank in support, and Hawaii Appleseed offering comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members. Daniela Spoto, with Hawaii Appleseed. Just want to note that this Bill actually would just lower the percentage that parents are required to pay. As Nicole Woo mentioned from HCAN, this is not a federal requirement, this is just an extra requirement that we have in our state statute for some reason.

And so, our preference, and which is why we're providing comments and not supporting, is that we would actually strike the entire statute and not have this additional requirement that parents pay at all, which I believe the next Bill we're going to be hearing, HB 5—1500—would do. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to testify on this Bill? Anyone online? Okay. Seeing none. Members, question?

No questions.

Question for the Department, please. Deputy, if you can kind of share, what was the proposal at the January Board of Education hearing to raise the school price and what was, how did you—what was the finding? What was the current cost to prepare the current meal?

Yeah, the current price is about—for breakfast is $5.80 and we're charging $1.10. For lunch, the cost to us is $8.66 per meal and we charge $2.75. So, that's 19% of the cost on the breakfast and about 32% on the cost for the lunch.

But when you combine the two, it comes out to about 27% of what the cost of the meal is. What we proposed to the Board of Education earlier was to step it up over a five-year period.

So, we had gradually increased it with the promise that we would be monitoring the participation rate to see if there's any significant drop in student participating because of the price increase.

So, we left it up to the Board that we could revisit it anytime if we thought that too many kids were falling out and not participating in the school lunch—school meal program. But it was phased over a five-year period.

And at the end, I think we're just about at the 50% of what our current costs are now.

For when we do these proposals to raise prices, like, does the Department have, like, a mechanism in place to kind of look at prices over time or, like, how do we determine, like, the—verify the cost of what goes into, like, preparing the meals?

Like, you know, what entails, like, $5.80, the $8.66. Do we historically have this data, like the last five years, you know, preparing, you know, the same type of meal, which is, right, we are a heat mostly a heat and serve.

And then over time, you know, for us to be able to see like, is it inflation, is it the cost of labor, or is it, you know, how—where can we pinpoint like where exactly the price is, are driving the cost?

That's a good question. We don't have that information right now, but I will go back and talk to our food service people if we got that historic information.

And then, final question. So, your proposal, is this a, this is a admin bill, is that correct?

Correct.

Correct. Okay. Your proposal is to charge at least 25% of the cost of meal preparation. So, my understanding is this language sets a floor. So, it's a minimum of not less than. So, it means—to me it reads as it doesn't prevent the Department from increasing the price above 25% at a future date.

So, it kind of also tells me that it's the intent of maybe not getting to universal free school meals. So, I guess, what would prevent us from going to 30% or 35%?

Well, I don't think it's, it's the Department's desire to make money off of the program. I think the statute set the limit at 50% and all we're trying to do is bring it up to comply with the statute. That's what started this whole conversation.

Okay. Okay, thank you so much. Members, questions? Okay, thank you. Seeing none, let's move on to House Bill 1500, which would repeal the department's ability to set the price for school meals. First up, we have Department of Education offering comments. Should just stay there. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, we're just providing comments on this bill. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Deputy, we have Attorney General providing comments.

Good afternoon. Chair Woodson, Vice Chair Lucica Members. Anne Horuchi, Department of the Attorney General. In this bill, removing the DOE's authority to set meal prices, the way it's accomplished is by striking all of current subsection A.

But by doing that, that also removes the DOE's mandate to be able to use rulemaking to set a lower price that's in a portion of subsection A. So the Department thinks that the DOE should probably retain that price portion of its authority.

So we've provided a suggested revision in our testimony to keep part of subsection A in place. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you so much. We have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support. Hi FI in support.

Law Nate Hicks, Hawaii Public Health Institute. We can end childhood hunger if we wanted. Congratulations. You have the power to do it. Please pass this bill and free school meals. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks in support.

Aloha. Same testimony as for the last bill, as Daniela mentioned, this one actually removes any price mandate for school meals as compared to the prior one, which just made that a little lower. So certainly support having more flexibility for the Department of Education and maybe move us towards universal free school meals.

Thank you. Thank you so much. And then we have Hawaii Appleseed in support. Thank you. And then we have one individual in support. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, Questions? Seeing none. Let's move on to House Bill 1293. This is relating to DOE's procurement for local edible produce and packaged food products.

First up, we have Department of Education in support.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair. Dean Uchida again, providing-- We stand on our written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We have State Procurement Office, offering comments on Zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Bonnie Kahakui, Administrator, State Procurement Office. We stand on our written testimony providing comments and recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, we have Ulupono Initiative in support. Thank you. Hawaii Farm Bureau providing testimony in support. Hi-Fi in support.

Hello-- Hello, Committee Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Kawika Kahiapo. I'm with Hawaii Public Health Institute and Hawaii Farm to School Network. We believe that this policy will help us to reach Act 175 30% local foods by 2030. We strongly recommend this passing of this policy. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We also have 10 individuals providing testimony in support. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 1293?

Aloha. I would like to testify. I'm pretty sure that I signed up too, but it didn't show up on the list. My name is Maya Gaudiano and I'm a 16 year old member of the Hawai'i Youth Food Council. And I am in strong support of this bill.

I believe that is extremely important that the state reaches the 30% local foods by 2030 goal in order to increase our state's food system resilience and decrease reliance on mainland imports. On top of being on the Hawai'i Food Council, I'm also leader of Climate Future Forum.

And the importance of increasing local foods in schools has tremendous climate change impacts such as decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation of imported food over thousands of miles. This bill will be able to decrease this reliance on imported foods, decreasing our state's carbon footprint at the same time.

I urge you to please support this bill to allow for a secure future for our generation and those to come. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to testify? Seeing none. Members, questions?

I have a quick question. SPO, please.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your testimony. Just a quick technical question. Per your testimony, you mentioned HRS 103D-310(c). It's unclear from the original reading.

Is that regarding just like the normal checks you would do on a business to make sure they're in good standing, or are you referring to something else in that proposal, that provision within the proposal?

Thanks for the question. So, no, it is correct. It's just a compliance check like we do every other vendor that does business with the state.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

While you're there, Bonnie, just have a follow up question. So your testimony asks for three quotes for purchases up to 100,000 and the department's asking for lower thresholds, which to me makes it easier for smaller rural farms to participate.

Just wanted to ask if you've kind of been able to be part of the conversations, you know, with the producers, the smaller farmers, because, you know, it's really difficult for them to fulfill contracts beyond 25,000 up to 100,000, especially for those with specialty products.

Thank you for the question. But yes, actually DOE and SPO did meet and the 100,000 is up to 100,000. So it would be 5,000 up to 100,000 that they do not have to use an e-procurement system. That's what this bill is about, not using the system. So if it's only 25,000 that they're looking for, that's fine.

They just cannot exceed $100,000 at that-- If it's going to be over 100,000, then they'll have to use any procurement system to advertise their solicitation.

Is there any reason for the minimum $25,000, why it's not less than 25,000?

It's whatever is under the small purchase threshold. So up to, that was just an example. It can be up to 100,000. So it could be, you know, 1,000, it could be 2,000. It doesn't have a bottom minimum, it just has a top maximum.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks so much for clarifying. Members, questions? Seeing none. Let's move on to the next bill, House Bill 333, which would beginning with, I guess blanked out school year, requiring elementary, middle and high school classes to start no earlier than 8:30 AM. First up we have Department of Education offering comments.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, members of the committee. I'm Heidi Armstrong from the Department of Education and we stand on our written testimony offering comments.

Thank you so much. We have Department of Health offering comments. We have UPW in support and two individuals in opposition. Anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 333? Seeing none. Members, questions? Seeing none.

Let's move on to House Bill 288 which authorizes DOE to use alternate vehicles for student transportation, gives them funds to purchase alternate vehicles and looks at staggered start times. First up we have Department of Education offering comments.

Dean Uchida with DOE. Good afternoon, Chair and Vice Chair. Department stands on its written testimony providing comments on this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next we have Attorney General offering comments.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, members. Anne Horiuchi from the Department of the Attorney General. We wanted to point out our concern, which is one portion of the bill. It has to do with Section 4, the staggered school start time program.

The program as that's described as written in it's the inclusion that could be problematic with the title of the bill and that it doesn't match up with the title being school bus services.

The other thing we noted is that unless school attendance period is shortened, then there should probably be an end time of the school day that should be staggered as well.

To try to address this potential issue with the title of the bill and this program, we suggested an amendment to try to refer back to being related to school bus services and also offering the DOE the availability to stagger end times of the school day. I'll be available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, we have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support. We have Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks in support.

Aloha chair, vice chair and committee members. My name is Chevelle Davis with Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks and we- and I stand on our written testimony in support. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. We have Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice in support. We have Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization on PO in support and five individuals in support. Anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 288? Seeing none. Members, questions?

Question?

Yes, go ahead chair.

DOE, please. Thank you so much for being here. Superintendent, there's one section of this, of this proposal. It deals with providing adult staff chaperone. I'm reading this to mean that this is applicable to if there is a driver with a P license, which is lesser than a S license, if I'm understanding it correctly.

How would the DOE implement that specific component of the larger bill?

I think that's the federal waiver we got temporarily for the school bus program. And what it does is if somebody has a CDL license--

No. I- I understand the waiver just to save time. But how would you implement specifically the adult staff chaperone? Because that's the one in addition to the driver, as I read it.

Right. So the company, whoever our company that we hired is, would have to provide another adult with the driver in the bus.

Okay. So that would be an added cost.

I got to get back to you now. I don't know if we factored it in or not.

Are there providers messaging that they have personnel to do that?

I think the bigger issue is they don't have enough licensed drivers.

Because it doesn't even- it doesn't specify. It says adult staff. So you're interpreting that to mean adult staff per the provider, not the department.

But I can get clarification for you on that.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Chair. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. Let's move on to House Bill 683, which would appropriate funds for student transportation coordinator positions across the state. First up, we have Department of Education offering comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair. Dean Uchida again. The department stands on its written testimony supporting the intent of this measure.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have HSTA in support.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. This is Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. First of all, we love this idea. Like, it's great to have somebody in charge who's coordinating to know what's going on because the bus system has kind of been a mess. I can speak--

I teach at Ilima Intermediate in Ewa Beach next to Campbell High School. And our kids from Iroquois Point with lack of bus service are regularly like a half hour late to school. Speaking of last year, the biggest week at our school is Spirit Week. And on Friday during Spirit Week we do a cheer-off.

Well, all the kids from Iroquois Point missed the cheer-off because the bus was so late they didn't get to perform in their dance, which is a school tradition that we have. It's also just messed with schedules. Regularly, your classroom gets interrupted because they're paging overhead, oh, this bus was late, that bus was late.

And the students are stuck on campus for a long time after school because the buses just aren't there.

I'll give one other story I have of a teacher herself because so much transportation headaches happened at the beginning of the school year when we didn't know these services were canceled because there is no coordinator, teachers' children weren't able to get picked up and put to school.

So how do you expect teachers to focus on teaching other people's children when they don't even know how their kids are getting to school safely? So we support this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks and Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii in support. We also have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support, Ulupono Initiative in support, OMPO in support, and two individuals in support. Anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 683? Anyone online?

Okay, seeing none. Members questions? Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. For the Department. Thank you so much for your testimony. And one of the things that you noted in here is that you currently have people in all the different districts helping to manage or essentially being coordinators.

This bill really came about because one of the things we found out was that you folks didn't-- you only had one coordinator for the entire state. So when did you implement this and how is that working so far?

You mean the 8 district? I don't know exactly when, but I could get back to you on when we started it.

Okay. It had to have been sometime in late last year because when we had one of our meetings, we found out that there was only one coordinator. That's something that came out during the testimony of our-- this special info brief that we had regarding the bus services.

Okay. I'll get you clarification on that.

Okay. I guess no further questions. Thanks. Thanks, Chair.

Thank you so much. Members, any other questions?

Seeing none. Let's move on to the next question. The next bill, House Bill 861, which would designate student transportation as critical infrastructure and requires contracts to have minimum standards, performance metrics and accountability requirements. First up, we have Department of Education offering comments.

Good afternoon. Chair, Vice Chair, Dean Uchida, Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony providing comments on this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We have Department of Transportation in support on Zoom. Okay. Not present. We have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support. We have HSTA in support.

Aloha, Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. Aloha Chair and Vice Chair. Again, I think we think this is a great idea and it probably should have happened before. It's our job as teachers to teach the kids, but you got to get the kids to us so we can teach them. So.

So we need to classify this as critical to infrastructure. Please support.

Thank you so much. We have HGEA in support. We have OMPO in support. Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks in support.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. I'm Chevelle Davis with Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks, standing on our testimony in support.

Thank you so much. We also have five individuals providing testimony in support. And we have Daniel Smith in support on Zoom.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair and Members, good afternoon. I'm here to extend and reinforce my written strong support of the HB861 by testifying this afternoon. I did not pick up my grandson from Palisades elementary, which is more than a mile away.

He has been denied bus service for four years despite one or two established school bus route services with stops about 100ft from Palisades elementary and established stops near our house. Those bus services were for Highlands Intermediate now and. And all for all years. And now for Pearl City High School for the past two years. School bus.

School busing does need to be raised from an optional service to a critical one. In rejection of our formal appeal by the Superintendent of Education, his office emphasized the word 'may' in the school bus statute. HP861 would substitute 'shall' for 'may'. With respect to providing school busing. I. Don'T want to complain. What?

There are many complaints in our rejection that I disagree with, such as mixing of school levels. However, there's plenty of sharing of school bus levels around the State of Hawaii. So rather than just complain, I think we should say that we need to see more focus on creative solutions rather than just saying no, we cannot.

School busing is safer than walking a mile plus with no sidewalks in most places and reduces carbon dioxide pollution. In closing, I recommend that mandates for DOE to coordinate more actively with county bus systems such as the bus be included in the bill.

While the while the bus has made some adjustments for service to Pearl City High School students, more can be done to make timely connections between routes. Restoration of tailored service to the Nakasone Entertainment center is one example.

And the bus passes our holo cards are not free to do and can be of greater value with better service coordination. Without that coordination, I too often am called upon to pick up my grandchildren from Pearl City High School. I strongly support HB861 designating school busing as a critical service. Mahalo.

Thank you so much, Mr. Smith. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 861?

Okay. Is that a raised hand on Zoom?

That was me. This is Kylie Swan. I'm a strong supporters measure because school bus system and transportation most paramount in this bill.

So if people want to catch the bus go to school like for James Campbell High School some students have to walk from the school to the bus stop to catch like 42 to go home or catch the 4244 from Ever beach location to James Campbell High School.

So can you please pass this measure and please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much. Listen to my testimony.

Thank you so much. Members, any questions?

No questions for this one.

Do you have a question for the Department Deputy? Yes. Okay.

So this Bill, the intent of this Bill is to just to increase accountability and oversight of school bus contracts to really just prevent the last minute cancellations that we've had over the last few years that we all know severely disrupts our families and our students and their principals and vice principals hear from. Right.

So in their past info briefings it was shared at the time that the Department had was under the impression that the contractor GTI would be who was awarded the new RFP had enough buses and drivers before the school year began. In reviewing the sample contract though there is an obligation there to ensure fleet and staffing readiness.

So the contract explicitly requires vendors to submit a full vehicle inventory at least six weeks before service begins. And the contract also mandates that vendors submit a full driver roster 45 days before the start of service, including verification of background checks and training completion.

So the inventory of the fleet and then the driver roster would have given the Department information well in advance whether the contractor had enough to operate their routes. Are you able to confirm if this was in fact provided to the Department?

Yes, it was. But what happened was the day that the buses were supposed to be working, the drivers didn't show up. That's what led to the not being going to cover the routes. So the company tells us they have this list of bus drivers, but the day that they need to show up, some of them didn't come.

And that's what led to the problem.

We had over 100120 something drivers that didn't show up on August 1st.

I don't know the exact number, but there was a. Yeah, a number of them didn't show up and that's why we lost coverage on some of our routes.

So when that happens, and this GTI is, do they have the sole award or does the Department currently have the ability to take like corrective action and be able to award or shift the contract to another provider who does have the. Does have established routes, does have the drivers?

We have only two providers right now. I'm not sure if we can take a route away from one of them and give it to someone else at this point.

So if it is a failure to. I feel like. So if it is because it is a failure to have the drivers, I mean, granted we can't control that. But it also speaks to me as a lack of contingency planning. What next? What mechanism do we have in place should this happen again?

Who's ready, standing ready to prepare our families? And shouldn't the contractor be held liable to losing all these drivers, hundreds and hundreds of drivers in a single day so close to the school year starting?

Well, I don't know if it's fair to hold them accountable if the drivers don't show up or not. We don't want to make it so onerous that, you know, they decide not to bid on a contract and then we'd be left with one company that would be not good for the state.

I think we've taken steps from what happened last year to try and keep in better contact with our two contractors. We have like, I think twice a month our people meet with them, make sure that they have a running log of the buses as well as the drivers they have.

And we do know that they're actively recruiting for more drivers, see ads on TV. But it's kind of a nationwide shortage right now of CDL drivers. So we're, you know, we're trying to do things to prevent it from happening again. We have started a conversation with the city and county about expanding the bus.

There are bus routes to cover some of our school routes. And we're in the discussion point right now. If we can do that and free up some of the routes, we can use those drivers to cover other areas that are more pressing needs. So there's a lot of conversations going on right now. Nothing is finalized yet, but.

Well, I mean, yeah, the public transportation can service some, not all rural districts and then also certain age levels, but not the younger kids.

Agree.

And then, I mean, even if the reality is we have underperforming vendors, to what extent do we hold them accountable and to what extent will we continue to allow this problem to exist without looking at a different solution? Because what we're saying right now is we have a problem and we can't do anything about it.

And because it's an optional service, we don't have the means to, you know, address this fully. Right. And so I think, because to me this is similarly if we want our kids to learn and be, be ready to learn and be well fed, the same thing like our kids can't learn if they cannot get to school.

Agreed, Agreed.

So anyway. Okay. Any other questions, Members?

The question about the no shows. Thank you again and I appreciate your comments about not wanting the contracts to be too onerous. But if you have 100 no shows, is that provider acting in good faith? That's, that's a significant percentage of the total CDL drivers that they're supposed to have ready.

I don't know exact number, but I think what we're doing this year differently is trying to stay on top of the providers, both of them, to make sure that they're giving us a list of current employees every, I think bi week, bi, monthly. We're doing it right now.

As we get closer to the summer, I think we're going to be doing it on a weekly basis.

Okay. I would argue that's not good faith if that many didn't show up. Thank you.

Chair, do you know if in the current contract there's a provision for emergency procurement? I mean, not just governor's emergency proclamation, but something that defines this as, you know, 100 no shows is like. Stands to me as a definition of like an emergency that we need to, you know, trigger some type of like.

I have to get back to you on that. I don't know what the exact language is in the contract. I'll get back to you for.

But basically for you to be able to procure. Right. With another market rate available service provider. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, Members, any other questions? Seeing none. Let's move on to House 862 authorizing use of alternate transportation options. First up we have Department of Education offering comments.

Thank you Chair, Vice Chair Dean Uchida, Department of Education. The Department stands under written testimony providing comments on this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up we have Department of Transportation in support on Zoom.

Not present. We have Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities in support.

Good afternoon Chair and Committee Members. My name is Samaya Gorham. I am a intern at the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We stand in our written testimony and strong support for this Bill. Our population has had issues getting to school and especially in rural areas due to the lack of transportation and the shortage.

And because of that we appreciate what this Bill is doing for sure. But we hope to see some accessible options in the new transportation provided from the Bill. So yeah. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next up we have HSTA in support.

Aloha Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. Aloha Chair and Vice Chair. Yeah, like I said in our other previous testimony, if you can get the kids to school, we promise to teach them. We just need to get them to us in any way possible.

I would also add, I would wish that every student would have a grandpa like Daniel Smith who shared about how he can get his students. But we know that's not students reality. I will also share in case you weren't aware that buses to get places are very expensive right now.

A few years ago I brought my students to testify before your Committee and it cost $350 to get a bus from Ewa Beach to the Capitol and back.

It was easier to get my car certified as an approved vehicle than it was to make that happen. To the point that I actually had to buy a new car when our Bill was in conference Committee because my car died and I knew if I didn't have a vehicle I couldn't get kids to speak in front of your Committee.

So this is a critical need. Please support.

Thank you so much. Next we have Soderholm Bus and Mobility in opposition, on Zoom.

Okay, next up, we have Democratic Party of Hawaii Education Caucus in support. We have Hawaii Self Advocacy Advisory Council in support. We have OMPO in support, Hawai'i Children's Action Network Speaks in support.

Hello, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Chevelle Davis with Hawai'i Children's Action Network Speaks and I stand on our written testimony in support.

Mahalo. Thank you so much. We have Kaili Swan in support on Zoom.

Good morning. Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. My name is Kylie Swan. I'm in strong support of this bill because school transportation was paramount in State of Hawaii. The one thing that does the DOE they're offering is a school-based HOLO card, so students can use that to ride a bus to go to school.

Like example, if you want to go from my house to Ewa Beach, you can catch the 44 or they can use the Route 42 or E to go to James Campbell High School, example, to go to school. So please pass this measure.

Please let me know if you have any question you may have and hopefully this bill can be passed in the future. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And we have three individuals also in support. Mr. Smith, did you still want to testify on House Bill 862?

No, I stand on the testimony. Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much. That's all we have for testifiers. Does anyone else want to testify on this measure? Seeing none. Members, questions? Okay, seeing none. I will be turning over the rest of the agenda back to Chair Woodson.

Thank you, Chair. Members, going on to the next Bill, we have HB619 with regards to BOE financial literacy in schools. First up, we have DOE offering comments in person.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair. Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education. And we stand on our written testimony offering comments. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here. Excuse me. We also have Board of Education offering comments in person.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, and Members of the Committee. I'm Capsun Poe, Executive Director of the board. The board does stand on its written testimony offering comments and did want to of course, acknowledge the Legislature's interest in financial literacy education. Mahalo.

Thank you for being here. Next we have Housing Hawaii, Housing Hawaii's future, offering testimony and support. We have Mr. Marvin Dang representing Visa Inc. In support, via Zoom.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. Visa strongly supports this Bill. Certainly when students receive financial literacy education at an early age and continuing through middle and high school, they are better prepared to meet the economic challenges that they would otherwise face as as adults in our testimony.

We describe one program which is Practical Money Skills, a program that Visa developed nearly 30 years ago. It's a program that is not only in the United States but also global and all the resources for this program, are free and you know, Visa and its partners are willing to assist with. This effort here in Hawaii. Mahalo.

Thank you for your testimony. Next we have HawaiiKidsCAN offering testimony and support.

Aloha Chair Woodson, Vice Chair, La Chica and Members of the Committee. I'm Erica Nakanishi-Stanis Advocacy Director for HawaiiKidsCAN. We stand on our written testimony in strong support of this Bill and would just like to urge that the inclusion that any implementation would include financial.

Planning for post secondary education and financial aid application as a real world practice based part of the curriculum that could be included. Thank You.

Thank you for your testimony. Next we have Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii offering testimony and support in person. Thank you for being here. We also have testimony from eight individuals all in support. One individual here. Mrs. Danson Honda offering testimony and support in person.

Aloha Members of the Education Committee. My name is Danson Honda and I am testifying in strong support of HP 619. I am passionate about this bill because I've experienced firsthand the power of financial literacy.

Growing up in a single income family of four, my family could only afford a small one bedroom apartment, so I slept on a fold up mattress on the living room floor. For the first 20 years of my life. As a child, I believed that working hard, getting good grades and going to college was the key to success.

I worked hard and was a straight A student. But towards the end of high school, I started questioning this path. I wondered if this was really the key to success. Why do so many still struggle despite doing everything right? Disillusioned from my education system, my grades slipped and I didn't even walk a high school graduation.

According to the system, I was a failure. After getting into college, I soon found myself in financial trouble. It's very troubling that students right out of high school can easily take out loans and open credit cards. Despite never learning about finances, I realized that my schooling had left me unprepared for real world financial challenges.

Because of the mistakes I made, I began teaching myself about budgeting, saving and investing. Lessons I learned not from school or even business classes in College, but from YouTube. This knowledge transformed my approach to life. I realized that working smart to somewhere rather than working hard to nowhere is what really mattered.

The most valuable lesson financial literacy taught me was Resilience. Instead of dwelling on setbacks and feeling sorry for myself, I learned to spot opportunities where most people saw obstacles. It also changed the way I saw work itself.

Society often defines a good job as one with a salary and probably requires a degree, while viewing anything outside of that as lesser. But financial literacy taught me that success isn't about job titles. It's about how effectively you manage your resources and opportunities.

It showed me that any job, no matter the label, can be a stepping stone toward financial freedom if you know how to leverage it. After I graduated from college, I began job hunting, but the pandemic derailed those plans. I applied everywhere I could, but hiring freezes meant that no one was calling back.

I became a food delivery driver and applied my newly learned financial skills to make the most of what I earned. Just two years later, at 24 years old, I achieved my wildest dream and purchased a single family home in Pearl City. Despite starting the pandemic, jobless, broke, and in debt.

While I worked hard to achieve this, I'm still grateful to have had a chance to learn from my mistakes. Many people do not have that luxury, and we should not be forcing people to learn about finances through mistakes when we can equip them with that knowledge ahead of time. People in Hawaii face challenges like nowhere else.

From the nation's highest cost of living to natural disasters, housing shortages, school food prices, and the constant pressure of competing with global demand for our paradise. Most proposed solutions to our unaffordability crisis only focus on lowering prices.

But if that's all we do, we risk making it even more attractive for people to come here and displace our local residents. We must also invest in empowering the people of Hawaii to compete.

By equipping people with the tools to achieve financial stability and success, we can ensure that we have the resilience to not just survive, but to thrive in our home. This binder is filled with all the financial literacy legislation introduced over the years. Some of these proposals date back to 2003. I was just a little kid.

I sincerely hope that by the time my kids are in school, and I would love to send them to our public education system, that way along with all of our future generations, can have the opportunity to receive the education that I wish I had growing up. To me these aren't just pieces of paper.

This represents the voices of so many people over time advocating for a more resilient Hawaii. Let's not delay this any further, and together we can make a meaningful change. Please vote in support of this Bill. Mahalo.

Thank you for your Testimony. Anyone else. HB 619, seeing none. Members, any questions? Quick question for the Board of education, please. Mr. Poe, thank you so much for being here representing the board.

And so I guess one of my first question was actually answered because there have been past attempts and task force working groups looking at this particular issue. Is there still a task force happening right now regarding looking at incorporating financial literacy more full throatedly in the Department of Education curriculum?

Sure. Let me answer. Well, first of all, Chair, may I just acknowledge the previous testifier because, you know, basically you're getting Jimmy Carter after Reagan just spoke. But to answer your question, the task force did report last year in May of 2024.

But what I think maybe to better answer your question is I think the board believes it's in the middle of doing this work. The task force report being sort of the beginning of that.

And in that report itself, the board did sort of note that it intended to return to the subject and this issue sometime this year by working with some of the folks on the task force as well as the Department.

Did that work start last year or did it start before? the task force work it did start two years ago

The task force work it did start two years ago. Thank you. But it did sort of wrap up and they produced their report to the board in May of 2024.

I guess because that's not the first time there's been a task force or a working group that looks at the issue that the board has actually.

You know, taking on looking at this issue to see how we can incorporate it into DOE schooling. And for me, what really I think was the catalyst was as long as I've been Chair and even before, the number one thing that students say that they want from their school is financial literacy.

And so I keep telling them year after year, you know, the board's working on it, the board's working on it, the board's working on it. And then we don't have any results. And then late last year, the former United States Secretary of Education Cardona came out to Maui, West Maui to talk to the communities.

And he held several meetings there. One was with a group of students from Lahainaluna High School. Secretary asked that group of students openly, you know, what did they want from their school? And they said they want financial literacy. One person said that and a majority of the students shook their heads.

And that's from students that have really experienced great loss and, and they've experienced tremendous trauma. And so for me, that triggered that we should try to work on this issue a little bit more aggressively. And I'm sure that the board chair, who was the previous chair of this Committee, has heard similar stories.

And so we're just asking for your help to get to a better place on this issue.

Thank you. I do want to acknowledge that definitely that could be the takeaway that folks get and the board is not meaning to be slow on it. I do want to make sure the Committee does understand that the board is just trying to be, I think, thoughtful and intentional.

But as you've heard from folks today, financial literacy is important and we'll definitely try and work to highlight the need to have some more action and in a acceptable period of time.

Thank you asking for your help because I think the first attempt went back 2008 was actually when the first working group was created. Thank you Members. Any other questions. Seeing no other questions. Moving on to the next. Thank you for being here. Mr. Poe. We have HB1343.

This is with regards to the Board of Education and cell phone bans. First up we have Board of Education offering comments.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members. Capsun Poe again, I did want to clarify that the board is supporting the intent of this bill and thank you so much.

Next we have testimony in support from Waimea Middle Public Conversion Charter School. This is English in support and we have 21 testifiers all in support, one in opposition, with one testifier Jessica Andrews offering testimony in support via Zoom.

Aloha Chair, thank you for allowing me to offer testimony in support of this bill. I'm in strong support and I urge you to take action to advance this bill. HB 1343 would be a great step forward towards empowering teachers and administrators to set up clear, consistent rules around cell phones in schools.

My children attend public schools in Hilo, Hawaii and my husband has been a middle school and high school teacher for many years in this area. My husband's experiences especially speak to the very difficult effect that cell phone presence-- the presence of cell phones has in classrooms.

Valuable classroom time is spent monitoring cell phone usage and competing with cell phones for students' attention. When students try to ban cell phone usage in their individual classrooms, if they have no statewide ban or even a school wide ban, they are often outliers at their schools with no established ban.

So they have to invent and enforce their own policies which leads to opposition, inconsistency and inefficiency in the classroom. Kids really need a consistent approach. Otherwise as we know, kids without consistency push back and there's confusion about what's allowed.

So I urge you to set up a consistent statewide policy so that all teachers are supported, so that administrators can act to back up their teachers, and so that parents can understand what the policies are and so that it's not invented from school to school or from classroom to classroom. Again, I urge you to pass this bill.

I think it would be a fantastic step forward to allowing students to focus on learning in the classroom and to remove the distraction of cell phones and devices which are not needed, especially when classrooms often have laptops that can provide Internet access. Thank you so much for allowing me to provide this testimony.

Thank you for your testimony. We also have testimony from HSTA offering testimony in support.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. We love that we're talking about cell phones in schools. So right now, policies are kind of left up to the building, which kind of leaves them up to the teachers. So I teach a middle school elective course, so I have six teams.

I see all students seventh and eighth grade. And so I need to know six different cell phone policies and it's impossible to keep up with. I would tell your committee, it's like whack-a-mole. You know, when you get one phone, another phone comes up and it's taking a lot of our day.

And I just, as a teacher, I want to teach. I don't want to police phones. That's not my responsibility. And I will also say, if you guys have a moment, check out "Teacher Social Media" on Instagram and look at the notification lesson. There's a lesson. And I did it with my class.

So I had 32 students last semester in one of my STEM classrooms. And basically they turned on all the notifications on their phone and went to my whiteboard to mark when each time they got a notification.

So I teach 85-minute blocks, by the end of that period, those 32 students had gotten over 4,000 notifications from devices during class. If their phones are blowing up like that, they're not focusing in class. And as a teacher, it's really impossible to have those conversations.

Other teachers have shared that cell phones become a huge behavior issue because they become like the students, almost like their baby blanket, right where they've got to hold onto it. And therefore it can become an issue when it is disruptive on getting that device to an administrator on having to call security.

Also with theft, you know, I teach at a Title I school, so we have a combination of haves and have nots and often devices go missing and then you have to call security to search bags to look for where the device went. And it just becomes a huge distraction in the school day.

And so it's something that we really need to have a discussion about addressing. And I think too, I think the students want us to address this issue. And when I say that, it's like the students are waiting for the adults to act.

And schools that have enacted a ban during the school day or during student hours have found their students got more social, have found their students engaged more, and they were actually kind of grateful that they were taken away from the device so that they could focus on learning. Many--

So I teach middle school and there's this multitasking myth your students have that they believe that they can effectively multitask while using their phones in class. However, research says that it actually hinders cognitive performance and hinders learning. So please check that.

I will say if you have students of your own, a new trick they've been doing is they will take their phones and like label a boyfriend or girlfriend, mom or dad, and they'll show me the phone and be like, 'Miss my mom's calling.' And it actually is a boyfriend or girlfriend.

I'm like, 'Okay, take that call from your mom.' So the kids are smarter than we are a lot of times with these devices. So it's up to us as the adults to be the regulatory voice and making sure that they can focus on their learning, while we can focus on teaching them.

So thank you for supporting this. Aloha.

Okay, thank you. I think that encapsulates some of the challenges well. That's all I have on my list. Anyone else? Members, any questions? Quick question for Board of Education, please.

Mr. Poe, thank you again for being here. I just must say, respectfully so your testimony, as you articulated, it's supporting the intent, but then it goes on in essence to say that the board should set the policy, when in fact that's what the bill is suggesting that be done.

Yes, Chair, I think it's-- the board's trying to do it within the board's established process for doing that. And meaning to very similar to the legislature, of course, involving public input and also consulting with the department.

But maybe if I could back up a bit, I probably should have started with, we definitely acknowledge that a state level board policy that could be applied consistently across department schools would be helpful. I did want to make sure I say that.

Thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Please go ahead.

Thank you. How long does it take for the board to get this policy kind of outlined and set up and running? What is your total overall timeframe approximately?

Sorry, Representative, it does sort of depend on the issue and some of the public engagement. You know, if things can be done very quickly in a matter of months for easier or smaller changes, for bigger changes that might have more impacts, especially on the department.

As I shared earlier, you know, the board would want to be thoughtful and intentional with the policy making. And part of that is to actually make sure we understand from the department how long it would take to implement that. And so sometimes things may take a little longer.

One of the things we try to do is give the department enough time to pivot and make adjustments.

And so usually under ideal circumstances, I'd say we'd want probably from the time the policy is passed at least one school year for the department to be able to message out to schools, to principals, to complex area superintendents, and all of that would probably help with the compliance with this statewide policy.

Has there been any significant pushback from parents at all saying, 'No, I need my kid to have their phone so I can get them'?

The last time-- Part of it is the board hasn't actually taken it up, so we don't know. But at least anecdotally and at least the last time the board considered this, that was what some of the pushback was. Parents were concerned that they could not get in the event of an emergency.

However, we want to define emergency, right. But somebody needs to make a phone call and they can't access their phone. Also, just, you know, as a parent myself, you know, sometimes you use Find My iPhone or tracking just to know where your kids are and to make sure they're at school. So that was--

That's another concern that's also been brought up. But I also want to acknowledge some of the benefits that have been brought up as well.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Please go ahead.

For Millie. Hi, Millie. I was wondering if you had anything-- Maybe you could share with the Committee on-- I guess if aside from tracking that there are 4,000 notifications that have popped up on student phones. I think my phone's busy, I think students are potentially busier than me or get more notifications than me.

But is there anything that you've done in your classroom to kind of implement, like, not necessarily a band, but as students walk in, do they put their phones in, like, a basket, so parents still know that they're in the classroom, but maybe those students don't have access to those phones.

Do you know if anything's been done similar to that or if you've implemented anything like that?

You know, teachers are a creative bunch, so a lot of people have tried different things. What I've heard overwhelmingly from our teachers is nothing is working consistently. Like the phone pouches might work for the first month and then they get sneakier about it. What I do in my classroom just because I don't--

The bottom line is students are addicted to their devices. I don't know how else to say it. And taking it away is like taking-- If you've worked with addicts, you've seen some of these similar pieces. And so what I have done in my classroom structure is that basically everybody's on task, everybody's working.

I work really hard to build classroom community and then I'll give them five minutes in the middle of class to go wild. So that gives them some phone time. They know it's coming and then I can get the rest of my classwork done. I know not every teacher is comfortable with that.

It kind of has to be up to the teacher discretion. But I will just say right now we lack resources. And for me, when it comes to like phone jail or put your phone in this box, you know, we're talking about $1,500 devices. So if the parent says I broke the kid's phone, then what do I do?

I don't feel like I have a lot of recourse. And then also I have to watch those devices if I've collected them to make sure nothing goes missing. And it just creates a whole situation that's really taking away from my instructional abilities. And that's why I think we have to have more options to address it.

But thank you for the question. Rep.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. Moving on to the last bill. HB 241 HD1. This is regarding DHS child care classroom and a direct service slots pilot program. First up we have is ELB Madam Chair Yamashita in support. Next we have EOEL offering comments and support or offering comments in person. Assume supporting the intent. Yes.

Hi Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, members of the committee, I'm Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. We stand on our written testimony offering comments. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We also have DHS offering testimony and support.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, members of the committee, I'm Stacie Tonouchi, Child Care Subsidy Program, on behalf of Director Yamani. We'll stand on a written testimony in support. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for being here. Next we have Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks, offering testimony in support in person.

Aloha chair, vice chair, members of the committee. I'm Chevelle Davis with Hawaii Children's Action Network and I stand on our written testimony and support. Mahalo.

Thank you for being here. Next we have AAUW Hawaii offering testimony and support in person.

Chair, vice chair and members of committee. I stand by our testimony in support. Thank you.