Senate Standing Committee on Education

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the Committee of Education. Today is Friday, January 31st. It's 3:00 p.m. and we are in room 229. Thank you for joining us. And I would like to welcome students from Kalaheo High School, Mililani High School, Kailua High School and Mckinley High School. Please stand.

You each have to do your Alma mater. Are you ready?

No, that's okay because Barrington's not here. Yeah. We have the best Alma material. You. Thank you for joining us. We'll start with Senate Bill 1391 relating to education. It appropriates funds to the Department Education for teacher requested classroom supplies for fiscal year 2025 and 2026, as well as 2026 and 2027. The testifiers list.

Do we have a list of testifiers? Sorry. Okay, so first to testify, Superintendent Keith Hayashi.

Aloha. Chair Kidani. Vice Chair Kim. Keith Hayashi. Superintendent. Testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands on our written testimony testimony in support of this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you, Superintendent. We have Osa Tui Jr. Is he here?

Aloha, Chair Kidani and Vice Chair Kim. My name is Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA for Osa Tui. Really excited about this bill and we're in strong support. As a teacher, I've used DonorsChoose since 2006 to get supplies for my classroom. Getting about $100,000 in supplies.

I'm really excited to see the department using this resource because the cool thing about this website is that teachers can request the supplies they want instead of having to price to the cheapest supply. So if I like Ticonderoga pencils, I can get the pencils that my students use.

My classroom could not run without the supplies that I've got from DonorsChoose. So I'm really excited to see this moving forward. We've gotten everything from 3D printer to a TV to pencil sharpeners to food for students who need it. So really, really important resource. And please support.

Thank you. Do you have anyone else here who wishes to testify in this measure? Come forward, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim and Members of the Committee. Aloha. My name is Mackenzie Brammer and I'm currently a senior at Kalaheo High School. I strongly support SB 1391 relating to education. As a public school student, I've witnessed many instances in which teachers have trouble buying supplies for their students.

By the middle of the year, they have trouble keeping up with the constant purchase of basic supplies such as pencils, and asking teachers to buy their own supplies not only becomes a burden on their own personal finances, but also on the students they're teaching.

It is completely unfair for a student's quality of education to be determined by how much money the teacher has to buy supplies. Passing this bill would encourage equity in our classrooms statewide, providing all students with the supplies necessary to learn. Because of this, I ask your support of SB 1391. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mackenzie. Anyone else here who wishes to testify, please come forward.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of this Committee. I'm Felicia Sendry, a senior this year, I Support Senate Bill 1391. As a student who attends a public school, many of my teachers have to spend money they don't necessarily have in order to provide supplies for students.

Many teachers at my school don't have the funds to purchase simple office supplies such as manila folders for their classrooms. Teachers who have low salaries as it is shouldn't have to spend money out of pocket on supplies for their classroom and students.

Supplies for classrooms and students are needed in order to help students learn in the best possible environment. I ask you to Support Senate Bill 1391. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here who wish to testify? Come forward, please.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of this Committee. I'm Kate Reynolds and I'm a junior at Kalaheo High School. I Support Senate Bill 1391 because teachers shouldn't have to spend their personal money on school supplies for their classrooms. Teachers already have a Low salary and work hard to educate our current and upcoming generations.

Teachers should have the resources available to them at no cost to ensure students have a well rounded education. I hope you're. I hope you support this bill to better our education. Thank you.

Thank you, Kate. Anyone else who wishes to testify on this matter? Thank you. If there are no other testifiers, is there anyone online? Okay. No other testifiers on this matter. Let's move on to Senate Bill 1300, relating to school meals. Appropriates funds to the Department of Education for meal subsidies for students whose families are classified as Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, ALICE households. So for Senate Bill 1300, is there anyone here to testify on this measure? Superintendent. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry.

Good afternoon, Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim. Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, testifying on behalf of Department of Education. The Department stands on his written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you, Dean. Ed Noh, Executive Director, Charter School Commission in support. Osa Tui.

Hi, Sarah Tochiki. On behalf of the Hawaii State Teachers Association and Osa Tui, I'd like to testify in support of this bill. We know that students do better in school when they've had a full meal. And while we can always say that while there's opportunities for applying for free and reduced lunch, there's opportunities for them to go get a second job, we really want students to do is focus on being able to learn. And being able to be fed well is really important for them to be able to learn well.

And here in Hawaii, with the high cost of living, we have a large gap of students that really cannot afford school lunch. And so then they are eating that bag of chips or the extra snacks that the teacher sneaks over to them that they requested on DonorsChoose when really they could be going straight to the cafeteria, getting a full meal, knowing without ever having to worry about being hungry that they are going to be fed at school.

And one less burden for every single student to have to worry about will mean everybody in Hawaii will have a better future. Because if they're not well educated, then we don't have an educated workforce. So even though it might seem like it's just one meal, that we might be doing things that could be, I don't know, almost giving away freebies, it really is setting up our future for our state. Thank you.

Daniela Spoto.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair. Thank you so much for not just introducing this bill, but for hearing it. Hawaii Appleseed wholeheartedly supports any measure that would expand access to free school meals. And this bill would get us one step closer to that goal. So thank you.

We would like to respectfully suggest some amendments, which are itemized in our written testimony, that we think will make the bill stronger. In addition to these technical amendments, we'd like to strongly encourage that the Committee reconsider limiting this essential benefit to only students qualified as ALICE. And this is for a few reasons.

As you may be aware, ALICE is a designation that takes into consideration not just household size and income, but also household composition and expenditures. So determining which students qualify using this complex methodology will require a tedious level of information gathering from the DOE, and it could feel invasive for families.

Second, income threshold isn't the only barrier to participation in the free meal program. There's other challenges. Things like language barriers, difficulty providing paperwork, or fear of disclosing information to a government agency that result in a lot of children that are actually eligible for the free program not participating. So we again thank you so much for the opportunity to testify and support this bill wholeheartedly. And thank you for considering our comments and amendments within your deliberation of this bill.

Thank you for your testimony. Judith Clark?

Not present on Zoom, Chair.

Thank you. Lauren Zirbel. Not here. Anne Horiuchi or Randall...

Oh, hi. Sorry. I'm Alexis Chapman for HFIA in place of Lauren Zirbel.

I'm sorry, what's your name?

Alexis Chapman for HFIA, Hawaii Food Industry Association.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Chair and Vice Chair. Thank you for hearing this measure. HFIA is in support of school meals for all keiki. The benefits of school meals are well documented and monumental for our students and for our society as a whole. And we would also support expansion of this bill in any way to include more students or all students. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Alexis. Attorney General's Office.

Good afternoon, Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim. Anne Horiuchi from the Department. As we noted in our testimony, we're suggesting an amendment to the bill. Either one, having the Legislature expressly establish by state statute a program for providing meal subsidies to students from ALICE households and that this provide for adequate standards provided by law as required by the state constitution, and also providing the DOE with the authority to adopt any necessary administrative rules to administer the program.

Alternatively, we do note that the DOE has administrative rules regarding their lunch program. Perhaps it could be, the bill could be amended to state that the DOE shall adopt rules or modify existing rules to provide the meal subsidy to ALICE households. Thank you for the opportunity. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you.

Nicole Wu, Children's Action Network Speaks. Not here. Beatrice Dirago, Democratic Party of Hawaii. Not here. Amy Miller, President CEO, Hawaii Food Bank. Not here. Lisa Paulson from Maui Food Bank. Not here. Susan Emery, Green Party of Hawaii. David Leake. Anyone here wishing to testify on this measure, come forward, please.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Nate Hicks with Hawaii Public Health Institute. In support of this measure and also asking for amendments, school meals are an incredibly important part of the day. We make sure that public education is free for all because it's very important and so should the school meals.

And so we ask that we support not only just our Alice students, but all students because similarly, the paperwork required might miss many students who are dependent upon subsidies like these. This is a very popular idea. Over 80% of voters support free school meals for all students here in Hawaii.

And so you have the backing of the rest of the state to make this change as well. Eight states have already adopted free school meals for all and have had much success. So we can follow their lead. I appreciate the time. Mahalo.

Thank you. Is there anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure? Members questions?

So right now, reduced lunch, free lunches or what percentage average? I know I have some of the highest schools with free lunch.

The free is about 36%. Right now reduce is about 8% and we projecting that the Alice group would be another 8%, 8% of that. So it would be like 52% total.

In schools like mine where I have like 80%, 90% reduced in free lunch. So Alice would be a very minute number for the rest of the school.

Probably might be the rest of the school. We just don't have a measurement for. So we're just extrapolating from data. It's kind of our best guess at this point.

Okay. And you know, it's not so much giving free lunch, but of the lunches we already give and already even when they pay for it, how much of that goes into the rubbish can?

Good question. That's part of what I think we're going to try and look at going forward is to collect data about they have waste, but it's more like from the kitchen side. I think what we're interested also is, you know, what are the kids actually eating? What are the students eating?

And if you know, one day the amount of waste is high, then we know that they didn't like that dish. Right. If it's Low, then we know that they like that dish. So we're not collecting that data right now. But I think that's something by now.

You Guys don't know that.

We've talked about this last session. We talked about the expensive software that you folks went and bought for, I don't know, what, $80,000 a year to be able to get a survey of what the kids like or dislike. And we talked about having teachers just, you know, hand count how many of you like this.

But stuff that are being thrown away, milk, fruits, apples, oranges, stuff like that. I mean, basic, basic things that. So it's, it's hard when we say we want to give everybody free lunch, but if half of that lunches are going into the garbage can, you know, we have to do something about that.

Because, you know, students, just because you give them free lunch don't mean they're going to eat it and they're going to be able to work in the classroom.

And if they're not going to eat it, then we're defeating the purpose. And if they run out and go to Mcdonald's or wherever else again, we're defeating the whole purpose. Right. Of this whole free lunch.

I agree. Right.

So I hope people will focus in on the fact that, you know, just providing the free lunch is not necessarily going to mean they're going to eat it, be nutritious, and they're going to be able to learn.

Totally agree.

How do we do that? How do we get to. How do we get there?

We're looking at improving the menu, too. There's a whole effort going on to try and improve everything.

But if they don't like basic fruits, if they don't like. No, they don't want, you know what I'm saying, then what is it that we're gonna have to, what, serve pizza and hamburgers every day and French fries? I mean, what is it that we can serve that the kids or let.

Jack in the box run your restaurant? No, I'm just kidding. So in the past, I know that at the end of the cafeteria line you could put back things you didn't want, like food that was apples, oranges or milk. But what about other foods?

I mean, like, are they served in the tray or are they served in containers now? So if they don't want it, they can.

I think it's depending what the dish is. Some are contained and some they put in a plate.

And has the Department learned from the types of foods that are mostly given back that you change up the menu?

If I may, when we look at the types of foods that, for example, fruits. I know when we went to on the continent, we visited some schools, they did have Table where they could put fruit back. Those fruit, though, have to be not sliced.

So for example, if we slice oranges or we slice apples, those aren't able to be put back onto the table for other students to take.

Can I ask you a question then? So for you to have the cafeteria workers buy the fruit, slice the fruit, is it better just to give the whole fruit?

It depends. I think what kind of fruit, for example, oranges.

I don't like to peel it.

The peeling, yes, the peeling is difficult for. Especially for the younger students. So we slice so they can, you know, they can peel it this way and eat it. We are looking at the different types of foods. We are also, I think Senator Kim had alluded to the survey.

We did do a survey in Leilehua Milani Waialoa complex area to get data and feedback on what students, what kind of foods they like, what they currently serve, as well as perhaps what we don't serve, what kinds of foods might they be interested in. And so we are taking that data.

We're working with our partners to adjust our. At adjusting our menu. I think what we've learned also is that's really important is as we're able to work with our menu and also at the same time, though meeting the requirements of federal compliance with USDA so that we ensure that our meals are reimbursable. That's really important.

So that's the balance. I think that we're working on healthy meals, locally sourced as much as possible, what we want to move to, but also meeting the. The standards for USDA so that those meals are reimbursable.

Thank you. So the software that you folks put in, how much does it cost us each year? 60,80,000?

Is that the. I can get you the cost of the survey. I am familiar with the.

It's a software that last. We talked about this last year, you folks do a serve. You have you bought this. It's yearly 80,60,000. Can't remember around that amount just to survey. And then they said, zero, it's other things.

But if that's costing us that much for you to do the survey at three high schools, I mean, I think this money can go better used to actually going directly to the schools or directly to the menus or to the students. Again, you know, these kinds of. We rely too much on computers to give us an idea.

We can look in the garbage can to see what they're throwing away.

Yes, I believe, Senator, when I alluded to the survey that we did with the complex area in central District it might not be the same software system that you're alluding to.

No, but that software was to be able to survey. So if you're even using something else than that then I have even a bigger question.

I believe the survey that you might be alluding to is our nutrisite system. But I can get back to you. I want to be sure I get you the right answer. So we'll get back to you on.

That because you know there's a lot of costs that folks employ that can go back into the schools and that's very troubling. Also when we went on these trips to look other jurisdictions they also had packaging where they would package the fruit, they would package certain things into that the kids can then take with them.

If they don't want to eat it right then and there they can take it home or take it and eat it later on in the day. So how are we being flexible? Because when you serve it, when you plate it, they don't necessarily can take care of it.

You bring up definitely a good point. We want to be sure that as we do the visits and we work with and we see the different things happening on the continent, we want to be sure that when we implement in Hawaii that we are confident that we are following USDA guidelines so that those meals are reimbursable.

So we are looking to explore some of the things that we've seen. But again we want to just be sure that they follow the stringent laws.

Are following it and they are getting reimbursed on the mainland and it doesn't. I don't think it takes rocket science for us to look at what the USDA expects and you know what you put into a bag for the kids to eat. So I hope that's not going to get another software, another study.

That's no, we will follow up on that and get back to you center definitely. Thank you.

So Superintendent, the 11.7 million that the Department is asking for is that for both breakfast and lunch? Yeah. With our students? Yes.

But if the Alice students is only point. What did you say? What percentage? 8%. 8%. It's going to cost us 11.7 million for eight.

No, I think that's to. That's the reduce the take care of reduced and the Alice group because they reduce they still pay. So we're going to make it LS and below everybody doesn't have to pay.

I see. So the reduces what is the reduced amount? 20 cents right now.

20 cents. 20 cents that the student pay out of pocket.

So 20 cents were reduced. Bring us to 11.7 million plus the 8%.

30 cents for breakfast, 40 cents for lunch. Sorry, I stand corrected.

Okay. Well, students, you guys are watching this. It's so important that we know how much, what we're spending, where the money's going, where your parents tax dollars are going, and why sometimes we can't give you guys what you want because this expenditures are being spent for other things that may not be needed. But thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

This might be unrelated, but I figure I'd ask. Now, parents in my community are concerned that in the elementary school they're not able to sit with their child. As example, a first grader who has a hard time opening her milk carton.

They were told that they're not able to sit with their child because there's federal funding with the lunches or with the breakfast. Does that.

I can get back to you on that, Senator, specifically to the federal funding question. I do know that as a former elementary principal, sometimes to be able to track who's on campus, you know, if there's many parents that want to come onto campus, we want to just be sure that, you know, everyone's accounted for.

The other thing is that we do have very hardworking cafeteria folks that, you know, aides that are in the cafeteria and lunch supervisors, and they do help, especially the younger children opening their milk containers and such.

So, yeah, we appreciate the parents who want to support their children, but we just need to be sure that we also take care of other issues that, you know, might arise.

Thank you. Thank you. I think it's also important that the principal and vice principals know who's on campus. So.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you. Is anyone from charter schools here? No testimony from charter schools. Okay, moving on. Senate Bill 440 relating to education.

This establishes a future career and technical education teacher scholarship program to be administered by the Department of Education, to facilitate the recruitment and retention of career and technical teachers in Hawaii public schools, and also appropriates funds. To testify, Superintendent.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. I'm Tammi Chun, Deputy Superintendent, testifying in support of this bill. And we're standing on our written testimony.

Thank you, Tammi. James Tokioka, DBEDT.

Was that... I'm sorry, was that DOE testimony?

Yes.

I'm reading your testimony. It says you'd need to do more analysis to determine how this would be carried out. Is it correct that you're in support? Or is that a different testimony?

We support the intent of the bill. We need more, in terms... We probably would need additional resources to implement, so we're still analyzing that.

You should give a full... Yeah, because you just say you support to what's here in your testimony. Thank you.

Sure.

Aloha kākou. Good afternoon, Vice Chair, I mean Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim, and Members of the Committee. My name is Thomas Chock. I'm with the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism on behalf of Director James Tokioka. We in DBEDT stand on our testimony as submitted with comments, and I'm available for questions. Mahalo.

Your testimony in support or just comments?

Tell us what your comments are.

Yeah, sure. Let's see. There are a handful of things that we feel like could strengthen the bill. We definitely are in support of the intention of the bill. We do feel like, in our efforts with workforce development especially, the front end of the pipeline is the CTE programs in the DOE. Right.

And what we see is opportunity to add elements to the bill, such as, in Section 302A-A, perhaps including externships for the participants of this program. So where educators can get opportunities. It's a work based learning approach where the teachers get actual work experience in the area that they're getting their CTE training on.

Similar to that in the same section, we felt like it would be helpful to have mentorship or professional development spelled out more clearly in the bill. We also felt like in the same section 302A-A, expanding the eligibility for the participants to beyond the University of Hawaii, those who are pursuing an education degree at the University of Hawaii, perhaps to other local colleges such as HPU, Chaminade, BYU Hawaii, and then also to include locals who leave the leave Hawaii to pursue their education degree elsewhere.

It would be beneficial for us if we could tap. We could expand the eligibility to those people as well. Let's see. Oh, reporting in section 302A-B. We felt like if there was some aspect of a reporting mechanism that was mentioned in the bill. So reporting on things like how many recipients received.

Well, that's the definition of recipient rate. How many recipients, retention rates after the five year commitment, and then what was the placement rates in high need CTE fields. So some kind of tracking mechanism just to be able to track data. And then lastly, DBEDT has prioritized five, I guess, industries that align with the CTE pathways.

Those five that DBEDT has identified include advanced manufacturing, healthcare, clean energy or energy, and creative industries and agriculture. And so we feel like it'll be helpful to prioritize those CTE pathway teachers if can to be able to align more with DBEDT strategy for economic development and economic diversification.

Good points, but have you met with DOE to discuss all these?

No, we haven't.

It doesn't need to take a bill for you guys to... Thank you. Questions? Anyone else here wishing to take testify on this measure?

I will be sure that we send it to the Committee after the hearing. Oh, you have it. Okay. I apologize. Chair, Vice Chair, Member. Anne Horiuchi from the Department of the Attorney General. On SB 440, it states that the scholarship recipients must teach current technical education in the Hawaii public school system for at least five years immediately following the completion of the state approved teacher education program.

What we are suggesting is that there be a requirement that the scholarship recipient also obtain a teaching license in order to teach in the public school system. We've provided suggested amendment in our testimony. Thank you. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you. Questions? Superintendent, questions?

Yeah, is Budget and Finance here? Anybody from Budget and Finance? Okay, Superintendent then, I guess. Okay. I certainly agree with technical education for teachers scholarship. But this also talks about a special fund. And if you look at what B&F says, as a matter of general policy, this fund does not meet the requirements in Section 37-52-3 HRS.

The special funds should serve a need as demonstrated by purpose, scope, and explanation of why the program cannot be implemented successfully under the General Fund appropriation process, reflect a clear nexus between the benefits sought and charges made upon the users of beneficiaries or a clear link between the programs and sources, provides appropriate means of financing for the activity.

And right now it's only General Funds or appropriation from the Legislature. Demonstrate the capacity to be financially self sustaining. So I don't think this meets that requirement. Right. I mean that's the whole crux of this bill is to have this fund to be able to pay for the scholarships. Right. So how do this fund become self sustaining?

Senator, just... We appreciate the opportunity for scholarship funds for to build up our special, to build up our career and technical education teacher workforce. But the mechanisms by which... But this was not a bill from a Department of Education bills.

But you are in support of it. So if you want support, then you gotta help us. Because again, it's not worth only the money, but how are you going to be self sustaining? Because special funds, you have to have specific requirements by law. And if it's not, then we're just going to have another fund sitting there. Then we're going to sweep at some point because it's not going to be usable. It's not going to have enough funding once the state funding runs out. Right.

Thank you, Senator. We do support the intent of the bill to support our CTE teachers. We definitely will reach out to Budget and Finance and talk with them to see what the next steps are.

Special funds. We just had too many special funds out there that does not report to these things and that's why we've done away with many of them. But then we keep getting new requests for new special funds and no way to keep funding it. So I just hope you folks look at that as you look at these bills going forward.

We'll reach out to B&F.

Superintendent. Also, does the DOE have in mind certain CTE programs, specific programs that you are wanting to...

I believe the CTE programs we're looking at in general supporting teachers and pathways.

I think depending on the level of funding, if we would prioritize some pathways based on economic development plans of the state if the funding was limited.

Okay. Thank you. The Attorney General is also commenting that we should insert in the bill to obtain HTSB licenses requirement in addition to teaching five years. You guys have comments on that? After receiving the scholarships.

I believe currently all of our teachers work towards licensure. I do know that in some instances we individuals that come from industry may have some difficulty in pursuing that, but we'll work with the Standards Board too on it.

Okay. And you might want to reach out to the AG too.

Yes, definitely. Thank you, Senators.

Okay. We are on Senate Bill 531 relating to education program establishes provisions for the storage and maintenance of the stock supply of bronchodilators at schools. This is a Senate Bill 531 for asthma. Administration Superintendent, comments.

Good afternoon Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim and Members of the Committee. I'm Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education and we stand on our written testimony and our comments are in our testimony. We support the bill with the changes that we've included in our testimony.

So I guess for the audience at home listening, I think maybe if you could answer some questions like is this supposed to will this help your absenteeism rates?

Yes. So currently we don't have a supply of the bronchodilators on our school campuses. And we know that asthma, whether it's diagnosed or not, is very prevalent among our children. And so this would equip all of the schools to have that supply on their campus.

And in the event there was an incident that warranted the distribution of that medication, there would be There could be the opportunity for staff on campus to be able to administer that medication.

It also allows the school, the bill would allow the school to receive that medication to stop through a prescription from a physician, and the physician would then prescribe the medicine to the school. So the school could have that on hand.

Thank you. I'm not sure if you're able to answer this question or if this is a Department of Health question. Is there shelf life for these medications?

There is. And to tell you the shelf life. Ben Kalinsky is from our School Health section and he can answer that health questions.

Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. Ben Kalinsky with the Student Support Branch. The range I can't speak exactly to, but generally there's a few years is typical for most medications. And when we're talking about bronchodilators, we're generally speaking about inhalers and Albuterol or Albuterol Sulfate, which is mentioned as an example within in the bill.

So that's also clarified. That's the most common type of pharmaceutical that we're talking about. And so those generally have, you know, several years of. And the amount of doses in an inhaler is generally 200. There are some that have less, but most of the time it's 200 doses.

So that's plenty for the type of use that we wouldn't expect a school to exhaust that within those few years.

So whose responsibility would it be to make sure that it's not expired? And then I guess the responsibility of the DOE or the school as far as not having, you know, the supply on hand and something happens to a child. Right. And we do have in the bill.

Let me read it.

I could maybe answer just in the general sense that there is an existence of this issue for schools currently because we do accept medication prescribed to individual students that have the appropriate paperwork and diagnosis and a provider that provides that prescription. And those medications have expirations that we have to monitor as well.

Things like the Naloxone for opioid overdose that's kept in schools also has an expiration. And so there are routines for managing. That's the nature of that. There's also provisions in the bill that talk about how those guidelines are put together.

Correct.

And then for the protection for the school, we have added on page four or no, I'm sorry, page seven, line two, we're suggesting to add the administrator of stock bronchodilator by authorized employees or agents pursuant to this section shall not require or imply any diagnosis or be interpreted as the Practice of medicine, nursing or other licensed professional activity.

Yeah, but what happens if a child, because you said something about that they had a prescription or they weren't diagnosed with having asthma? Yeah. You think they're having an episode, you give them one of these inhalers and something happens to them. And so is the liability on the school.

Through the training for the volunteer who volunteers to administer this medication.

Volunteers to give the medication? Correct. Certified person.

Correct. And right now, if a child has an asthma attack on, on the school grounds, the own and does not have an inhaler, if they've been diagnosed or if they have an asthma attack and they don't have any medication, the school has nothing on hand to help support the child until 911 comes.

So how many of these of the medication would you have to have on hand to be sure that you're equipped.

For the bronchodilator? Specifically, the schools would, with this bill, have the option to carry a bronchodilator, an inhaler, and that would provide the school with that medication. There's not a restriction on how many. A larger campus may, for example, under.

This have option for one use medication.

There are spacers used between the device, the spray device, that is the inhaler, and the recipient, the child, and that's a single use. But the inhaler itself can be used up to 100 to 200 doses, depending on the product.

So you would only have the child use it for that time and you would take back the actual medication portion.

Perhaps to clarify the use of the medication is in the event of a serious episode that is also requiring additional supports and services. So there is a generally calls to emergency medical services during a respiratory emergency. That's a serious event.

Approval or from the parents to do this?

I couldn't answer that. If you'd like.

So again, this overall, this bill has many layers and so there's coverage and sort of addressing liability issues and for the interest of notifying parents, parents providing the protocol to the public and notifying the community, the school community, where that's held and that it would be used in a potential respiratory emergency as an annual notification requirement.

And many of these ideas do exist in other states.

I guess my question really is, are. The parents supposed to notify the schools that the child has this issue and they approve of you intervening when the child does, or you take it upon yourself to see a child in distress and do the medication?

Well, the parents are notified that the school does have these on hand for A child who's already diagnosed, we do have an additional process and create an action plan for that child specific to his or her medical need. And the school, Shaw and other school personnel have that on file.

So for the students who are already diagnosed and we have student support team meetings with the parent and come up with a plan to address the child's needs should an attack occur on campus.

What you say, you notify the parents that you have it, but do they have to respond that it's okay for you to use it on their child or use it if appropriate?

Right. I would just say based on what the bill says, that would be an implied consent of a person experiencing a life threatening emergency. And that's the rationale, I understand, for Good Samaritan provisions and measures like this and epinephrine in public settings in general, they're all structured in similar ways.

To answer your question directly on page three, line 16 of the bill, number four, it does say the wording is inform parents or guardians about the potential use of a bronchodilator in a respiratory emergency.

Okay. Further questions. Yeah.

How many types of attacks or emergencies type illnesses are there that students have?

Could you clarify that, the symptoms or the definition of attacks?

First of all, what kind of Health Emergencies could occur that you are not, you don't have the medication or don't have stuff. Because right now it's this bronchitis, inhalers. I know we did opioids, but what else is out there?

Okay, what I'm driving at is, you know, schools are become, and trust me, I'm not trying to sound like I am, I'm not compassionate to all of the stuff going on. But at some point, you cannot cover every single possible possible. And if you don't, at some point we're going to be liable because. Well, why didn't you.

You provided inhalers, but you didn't provide, I don't know, eye drops to, to my child or you didn't provide this, the school didn't provide that. And then you're using volunteers and then there's this thing of liability. So I'm just wondering at what point do you know? And then parents then will then decide, well, I don't need to.

I forget the bronchitis of my. Forget whatever the school has this. It's okay. At what point where does it end?

This bill supports would support a child having an attack who doesn't have medication prior to 911 coming. And they're few and far between. They're few and far between. It's not a common occurrence, but it does happen.

Yeah. So how many of these inhalers you have to have? How long is it going to. Yeah, I'm saying there's a lot of issues. Who's going to give it. And then if doesn't happen, then somebody becomes viable. And then what is the next.

What is the next bill for that we've got to cover that we didn't cover, like epilepsy. I mean, I don't know. I don't know all the different childhoods, type of things that could happen. And certainly, I mean, can we cover them all? Can you get medication to have them all in stock?

Do we have examples of currently what the schools have in supply for medical needs of students?

Currently for any prescription medicine right now? It all comes from the child's family. The parent would notify the child, the school, that my child needs insulin, my child has seizure medication. And so we have, we have an action plan for the child. And that plan describes what medication to give and when and by whom.

So in this case, then the parents would supply. Have a supply on hand to give you in case it happens to their child.

That requires them to have good access to health care, timely access to health care and insurance coverage for medications. That also takes into account that a school may need a different.

So you're saying the school is now going to be into providing health care and medication for those who don't have it, Is that what you're saying?

Because medical emergencies can occur for children and children are spending their time and.

Then providing health care care on a regular basis. I mean, we have to decide what it is we're going to provide because you don't have unlimited funds and you don't have unlimited liability. So. Understood. Protections.

So I didn't read the AG's opinion, but AG here.

I think what Vice Chair. I just want to tag team off of that with regards to. Is there actual and how many cases, children that experienced maybe an asthma attack. That didn't necessarily have the inhaler or medication on hand? So is this.

It's not a common occurrence, but it does occur. And the current procedure, when that happens is the school will call 911 and when 911 arrives, the paramedics will address the situation.

Okay.

So do you have a comment on this request? Because it's, it's involving just one type of illness or medication that's being required. And I mean, are we setting a precedent?

I think it's possible it could be, I would say, focusing on the testimony that we submitted on this bill. Our concern was that the bill is very expansive in terms of its definition of school.

It refers to it defines a school as any daycare center, child care facility, Head Start program, preschool, kindergarten or elementary or secondary school, public or private, including any special school for children in the state. Many of those are entities over which the Department of Education doesn't have any jurisdiction.

And so our concern, because the bill on page one at lines nine through 11 states that the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Health, shall develop a protocol regarding the storage and usage of a stock of supply from excuse me, stock supply of bronchodilators and sets forth various parameters.

But it would be difficult for the DOE to be able to develop and implement protocol for and applicable to entities over which they don't have any jurisdiction. That was what our testimony commented on. But I do see the concerns that are raised in the discussion that you just had with the Department.

Thank you. No further questions.

Okay. Are there further testimony on this item?

There's several of us.

Please come forward.

Hello, Churchy Donnie by Cher Kim Members of the Committee present and also watching.

I'm Pedro Haru, Executive Director of the American Lung Association. You have my written testimony. We're in full support. I just wanted to point out that there's 24 states that have passed similar legislation already.

So we have an opportunity to be able to apply those models for here in Hawaii there are cases where states did not adopt these policies where children have died waiting for emergency services.

When that has, it would have been easily resolved by the Administration of this Medication that according to many of the medical industry associations should be an over the counter medication at this point because its efficacy has been proven so safe. We also wanted to point out that.

So the way that this policy is built in order to be able to allow the flexibility for the Department of Education is that it's not a mandate to create, but it allows the entities to be able to create this if they, if they so choose to.

Right now they don't have the ability to do that as it currently is, but it is not a mandate. This is also part of developing these type of policies are part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asthma friendly policies that they recommend that all school districts adopt.

At the point I see my time is up, so I'll be available for questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the clarification.

Laura Reichardt.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Laura Reichart. I'm here representing Hawaii State Center for Nursing and I'm also here representing the uh, Hawaii School of Nursing as it relates to the Hawaii State Center for Nursing. We stand in our written testimony in support of this measure and I welcome any comments.

And if I may, as it relates to the School of Nursing and dental hygiene of which the center is within but for the School of Nursing, they are one of the collaborators along with the DOE for the Hawaii Keiki program and they have been embedded within schools.

This Hawaii Keiki has been embedded within schools for the past 10 years. But there currently is not a school nurse for every school.

And so when there are emergency emergencies like this, whereas there is safe and effective treatment that's available, that is, you know, parents can give this medication to children, so it's available for laypeople, it's safe and appropriate.

It was seen as a safe and appropriate response that would lower the risk and increase the safety of children of school who just have normal health events, but sometimes are at School and not with their parents.

Thank you. Members, questions? Thank you. Next to testify, Eben Uwe. Not here. Testifying for Hawaii Association for Justice, Ann Haruichi. zero, okay. Anyone else wishing to testify? We have some Members on zoom. Go ahead.

Aloha Chair Kidani, Vice Chair Kim and Members of the Committee. I am Gloria Fernandez with Department of Health.

I'm sorry, didn't hear your name.

Gloria Fernandez with the Department of Health. Forgive me, my throat is really dry. And offering comments on this on this Bill. I'm with the Communicable Disease and Public Health Nursing Division and we're providing the following testimony on behalf of the Department.

So this Bill will allow for students that do not have access to a bronchodilator during the school day through an emergency action plan or approval to. Sorry. Approval that allows them to self carry their medications to be able to receive the medication when an emergency arises.

Other updates in this measure will aid in the ability for students to safely and timely receive prescribed and approved medications, improving their overall health and ability to remain in school. The Department of Health will work collaboratively with the Hawaii Department of Education for these protocols should the schools want to be able to offer this.

And we will also work with any of the community partners to implement one and if enacted. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. Any questions?

Thank you.

We also have Jeremy Cre.

Not present on Zoom Chair.

Thank you. That's all the testimony that Members questions otherwise. Moving on. Senate Bill 533 relating to education appropriate sponsor Department of Education to evaluate school needs to mitigate the impact of the planned public safety power shutoff program.

Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tammy Chun, Deputy Superintendent for the Department of Education. The Department of Education supports this Bill. This is a Bill regarding power safety public safety power shutoff. It's the Hawaiian Electric response to preemptively shut off the power in certain cases.

There are currently 15 schools on the PSPS list and the experience in California in terms of implementing a PSPS indicates the Average shutdown is 48 hours for schools. We have come up with a plan to keep schools open as long during the power safety shutoff when the power is out, as long as conditions are otherwise safe.

We are asking for this appropriation to be able to do actions to prepare schools to be able to continue to be open while while the power is out. And the two main things schools need assistance with are.

One would be power, particularly for the cafeteria to be able to continue to serve meals and provide a place where students who need electricity or power for their assistive devices such as our medically fragile students would be able to congregate and then second would be for shelf staple meals so students could eat during the power shut off.

I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you.

Thank you.

On Zoom.

Not present on Zoom chair.

Anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure? Angela.

Aloha. Angela Melody Young testifying on behalf of ROAR Cares in strong support. Rescue of animal rights, community advocacy, research, education services a grassroots movement. It's a small team from our church so I'm in strong support. Without assuming is it a locally owned business because infrastructure utilities for water and sewer is controlled by the county's office.

But it does say in the introduction a local investor owns electric utilities company planned a public safety power shutoff program. So I'm in strong support.

Especially with the underlying issues of Maui wildfire recovery events highlighting the need for emergency procedures, strategies and routines for implementation during emergency response to set a new standard of operation for schools because 15 Department of Education schools and a charter school were identified as vulnerable to plan public safety routines.

And I think it's critically important to have backup solutions. So in strong support.

Thank you. Questions go ahead.

Afternoon Chair Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is James Abraham. I'm testifying on behalf of Hawaiian Electric in support of this Bill. We'll stand on our written testimony that we submitted to the Committee and I'm available for any questions.

What's your name again?

James Abraham.

Thank you. Members, question. Thank you. Any further testimony? Thank you.

It.

Zero, I'm sorry. We need to count you back in. Okay, we'll go.

Zooming the Committee we are on.

This is the next one we just did. So the next one would be 57477.

So Senate Bill 747 relating to the Board of Education. This establishes an audit office within the Board of Education to audit operations and expenditures of the Department of Education. Exempts positions within the audit office from civil service law. Requires annual reports to the Legislature.

Establishes six full time equivalent positions within the audit office and appropriate funds to testify on this measure. Board Board of Education.

Happy aloha Friday Chair Kidani, Vice De Kim and Senator. I know we're at the end of calendar so I'll try and keep it brief. Captain Poy, Executive Director of the board and I did want to convey the regrets of our legislative ad hoc Committee who would usually be here with you today.

Some of them are ill or away. And just very briefly, the board does stand on its written testimony supporting the intent of the measure and we do recognize, of course, the value of accountability and transparency.

What is it that you have concerns about?

Well, Senator, I do think we need to figure out some of the cost breakdowns and how we would figure out the staff. And I think maybe, you know, trying to maybe work with some of the other auditing functions or auditing offices, including office of the Auditor, on how they go about doing that.

I do want to make sure I say auditing is a highly specialized skill far beyond the current capacity of the board's pretty small staff.

Anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure?

So in reading this measure, it talks about putting an audit that operate independently, which I certainly support, but who actually will guide them as to what things they're going to audit for? Who oversees this board and audit office?

I will just say that that would likely be the board and the board would perhaps establish a Committee. But I also would say that that's probably for either the board, the ad hoc Committee of the Board to decide, or the board, through board action, to decide how they want to structure that relationship with the Auditor.

And it is, yes, very clear in the Bill that it's meant to be very independent. And I think the way we read that is, is as reporting directly to the board without much interference from others.

Okay, I question this. Certainly I'm for all of, as you know, for transparency and accountability. But I know that we put in an Audit Committee for the Board of Regents, and it's the Board of Regents that decides what gets audited. And if they don't want something audited, it doesn't go to the Committee.

And so there's a push and pull and a pullback. So it's like, okay, operate independently, but if they're still part of the board, then is it really going to be independent? So, I mean, I'm not sure how it's going to work because it certainly hasn't worked with the Board of Regents.

Yes, I understand your concern and acknowledge that. I would say that I really wouldn't want to venture to guess how that would all work. We'd probably have to figure out how we would set it up and do it in the best way. And trying to alleviate some of those concerns. Yes. And the cost to do it.

So right now, does the board have the ability to audit?

Not currently within the board staff there.

But you folks can order audits? Yes, the board can.

I actually can't remember when the last time that was, but I would say as far as a very specialized audit, I can actually get back to you on the specifics on that, Darren, lies.

The reason why this is probably surfacing because if the board is not exercising its ability to hold accountable and to look at certain things and then. And then have audits done and yes, it's going to cost money. This is going to cost money.

Then this is why, you know, when you folks see these bills is why it's happening. Because perhaps you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Right.

Thank you for that feedback, Senator. I did just want to clarify. I don't want you to think that no audits are being done. There are a lot of actual annual audits, for example, that are done.

That's what this is. Yes, because this is more about performance. And management audits other than the perfunctory audits that you have to perform each year. But this goes beyond that. Any other questions?

Okay.

I don't have access.

Reconvening the Committee on Education. Committee Members have conferred and we are looking at passing out fifth amendments Senate Bill 1331 with technical and non substantive. 1391, passed with amendments, with technical and non substantive amendments. Blanking out the appropriation amount.

And we will note in the Committee report that 3 million is requested by the Department of Education and defecting the date to July 1, 2050.

Okay. Recommendation is to pass with amendments. [Roll Call] Four ayes, one excused. Recommendations adopted.

Thank you. Next item. Senate Bill 1300 relating to school meals. Recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments. And the-

So. Senate Bill 1300. We're going to include. We're going to pass with amendments which would include the testimony of the Attorney General's Office to insure a section that requires the Department of Education to adopt administrative rules to effectuate the purpose of this Bill.

We will blank out appropriation amounts and note in the Committee report that $11.7 million is requested in the Department of Education's testimony and defecting the date to July 1, 2050. Senate Bill 4- I'm sorry.

Okay. Recommendation is to amend Senate Bill 1300. [Roll Call] Four ayes, one excused. Recommendations adopted.

Thank you. Senate Bill 440 relating to education. Recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments. We will include the Attorney General's testimony which requires Hawaii Teacher Standards Board license as a requirement. Technical and non substantive amendments. Blank out appropriation amount.

And note in the Committee report that 600,000 is requested by the Department of Education and also defecting the date to July 1, 2050.

Members, questions? Pass with the moment.

Any Members voting with reservation? Any Members voting no? If not, four Members present. Voting aye, one excuse, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 531. Recommendation of the Chairs to defer this measure indefinitely. Senate Bill 533 appropriates funds to DOE to evaluate school needs to mitigate impact of planned public safety power shutoff programs. Recommendation of the chairs to pass with amendments.

Blank out the appropriation amount and note in the Committee report that $1 million is requested by the Department of Education and effect the date to July 1, 2050. Questions Members?

Recommendations to pass with amendments. Senate Bill 533. Any Members voting? No. Any Members voting with reservations? It's not for Members. And affirmative. One Member. Excuse my recommendations adopted.

Thank you. And a final Bill. Senate Bill 747 relating to the Board of Education. Establishes an audit office within the Board of Education to audit operations and expenditures of the Department of Education. Exempts positions within the audit office from civil service law. Requires annual reports.

Recommendation of the Chair is to pass with amendments, including technical and non substantive amendments. Blank out the appropriation amount and note in the Committee report that $575,000 is requested by the Department of Education and defect the date to July 1, 2050.

Okay. Recommendation to amend Senate Bill 747. Any Member voting? Vote of reservations? Hearing none. Four Members present. One Member excused. Recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And that concludes the meeting.