House Standing Committee on Education

Good afternoon. This is the joint committees on Education and Economic Development and technology. We have one Bill on the agenda today. It's February 13th, 2:03 p.m. and this is conference room 309 in your state capitol. First up we have HB 714, HD1. This is doed bed and educational pathways.

First up we have DOE offering testimony and support in person. Oh, there's DOE.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson. Chair Ilagan, Vice Chair La Chica. Members of the Committee. I'm Wanelle Kaneshiro, Director of the Workforce Development Branch, testifying on behalf of Superintendent Hayashi and the Department of Education. We stand by written testimony and appreciate the opportunity to advance our health services programs of studies. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for your testimony. Next we have DBEDT also offering testimony support in person.

Aloha Chairs, Committee Members, Dennis Ling for DBEDT. DBEDT stands by its written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here. Next we have the State Council for Developmental Disabilities offering testimony support in person. Next we have OHA offering testimony and support. We also have Zoom testimony from the University of Hawaii and support available via Zoom. Oh, please, please come up.

Yes, I'm Della Taraoka, Interim Vice President for the UH, Community Colleges. We do stand by our testimony, but I should have Laura Nagel online from UH, Maui College. So if you have questions, we'll be here to answer your questions.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. We have testimony in person from Hawaii Association of or, excuse me, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, in person and support.

Thank you, Chair. Vice Chair. Members of the Committee for the Opportunity to testify. This measure will provide state funding for two years to continue and expand proven healthcare workforce development programs for high school students and current nurses. Hawaii has nearly 4,700 openings in healthcare with a growing need for entry level positions like CNAs.

The programs supported by this measure are having already a material impact on addressing our workforce pipeline. Last year we were able to serve 2024. We're able to serve more than 100 public high school students across 14 schools, achieving a 98% completion rate and even more impressive, a 75% employment rate.

We're also able to support 34 CNAs in the Glide Path program. These individuals were able to earn their LPN licensure while working, increasing their salaries by 50% and providing critical long term care support. We hope with this funding to. We will with this funding to continue these successful programs.

We're very appreciative of the collaboration of the Department of Business, Economic Development and tourism which administers the program. And thank you again for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next we have Queen System offering testimony and support. We have Hilo Benioff Medical center offering testimony and support. Hawaii Healthcare Systems Corporation and support. Hsac, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition in support. We have Liberty Kidney Care in support. Hawaii State Center for Nursing also in support. Hawaii Medical Association and support.

Hawaii Primary Care Association and support. Aloha Care and support. And one individual also in support. Anyone else? HB714HD1 please come up. State your name and your affiliate.

Angela Melody Young, testifying on behalf of CARES in strong support of the healthcare workforce development. So at Waipahu High School they have like a high school version of a training program for nurses to prepare for their job beyond school.

And it also helps to prepare health care professionals at an early stage in life in high school so that they can get ready to study nursing practices or become a medical professional and study cancer. It's really good to address, address the critical shortage for nurses at the school level to provide funding for that. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Can you please submit your testimony so we have it for the record? Thank you so much. Anyone else seeing none Members, are there any questions? Have a quick question for h and as you come up, let me just kind of set this up.

So when I think people speak about internationally competitive school systems or world class public schools, one of those characteristics that you see is that they offer educational opportunities that are really tied to marketplace need or community need and they also work with like nonprofits and private sector to expose students to these different types of educational opportunities.

This Bill does that and it sets it up nicely in the preamble. I would just say also it's been beneficial for our community. On Maui, we have a shortage of CNAS certified nurse assistants. We supplement that by flying in traveling nurses.

That's about a third, that's three times the cost of what you would need to pay for that system. That cost is passed on to our community Members.

And so this type of proposal not only is a tenement of what you see in high performing systems, it allows for our community Members to make more money right out of high school and beyond and also bringing down the cost for our community.

But can you just explain a little bit about how the secondary education component works with a certification just so people understand what you're trying to do here?

Yeah, we're really excited about these programs and these opportunities to partner with our public high schools across the State and including on Maui, where through our partnership, also with our membership, hospitals, long term care facilities, we're able to support these programs in a public high school where students in their senior year can get certification, industry certification, CNAs, MAs, patients, medical assistants, patient service representatives, phlebotomists.

Phlebotomists are the people who draw blood.

So you can actually get these certifications in school so that if you're not going to go on to college and a lot of our students in our public high schools do not go on to college immediately out of high school, they can enter the workforce with this industry certification as soon as they graduate from high school.

And we are working, we as an Association are working very closely with the healthcare industry to connect these students with employers while they're in school. So we provide what we call rapid around services which has helped with filling out job applications with interviews. So it's a, it's much more than just a classroom education.

It's a fully, it's a well rounded program to not only provide these students with the certification and the education to support what they learning in the public high schools, but also this collaboration with employers so that when they exit the workforce, many of these individuals already have a job lined up.

They've been through again, you know, how to dress for an interview, how to answer interview questions.

So it's a very well rounded program and it is as you can see from the success rate, the fact that 75% in this cohort, the HH cohort last year 2024 75% employment rate, which is a remarkable employment rate for these types of programs. So we actually, we had 100 enrolled in these programs last year.

We actually have materially more than that in the program this year. So again we're looking to continue these programs to support our public high schools, but also to support the healthcare industry that has such a dire shortage of healthcare workers.

Yeah, thank you for that. Until then, students have the opportunity to go on for more advanced educational opportunities and glide paths to become LPNs as an example.

Yeah, that's the, you know, this has been a learning journey for us over the last few years as I've been working to develop these programs. And one of the things we've learned is that you can't just especially, especially for these entry level positions. There wasn't previously, there wasn't a clear path forward.

You know, you got, let's say for example, you get your CNA certification. So you go out, you become a cna, which is great, but then what do you do? Is sort of, you know, we'd leave these students on their own. What we've learned is that you need to develop what we call these glide paths.

And we have a number of glide paths we're working on and we're going to expand those. But the one in particular that I'm talking about and we on Maui, the Maui Community College has been an incredible partner working with us on this. And we have students across all the major islands right now involved in these programs.

But a glide path is an opportunity to go from a certificate level program. Sorry, a. You know, where you get like a CNA program. A CNA certificate and a CNA can earn right now in the market somewhere maybe 20 to 23 dollars an hour.

But the next step for some people is a program, you know, one opportunity is an lpn, a licensed practical nurse. So under this program, while you're continuing to work as a cna, you can study and get work experience to become an LPN that takes about a year.

You then have to take an external exam called the Nclex, which is national exam. And once you pass the NCLEX and you can get a job and some of these individuals are getting job in the same organization, they're moving from CNA to an LPN. So a CNA again, market rates right now around 20, $23 an hour.

So after about a year of education, earning and learning and then parks and the NCLEX, they can then move on to become an LPN. LPNs, right now the market rate is in the low 30s, so their income goes up by about 50% simply by taking this program.

Now we're also developing a glide path for the next step, which is the lpn, to like an ADN or an RN degree.

And so it is possible that some of these individuals who got a CNA certification in high schools five years from now, seven years from now, depending on what time frame they choose to take, they could become an rn, whereas they never would have qualified initially because of the incredible competitiveness for RN slots in our schools in Hawaii, most of these students would never have gotten into an RN program just by straight out of high school.

However, this is an opportunity should they choose. Not all of them are going to go all the way through, but if they choose, they can go this way. We're also developing a glide path program like the phlebotomist people who draw your blood so they can advance in their career. And we're looking at other glide paths as well.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Sinan recess. Okay, thank you. And Economic development and technology. Again we have one bill in the agenda. HB714HD1. This is with regards to high quality educational pathways 1st edn Members this bill has already been scrubbed and has a defective date. Recommendations to pass this unamended.

Also want to make a notate that in the first Committee there was an appropriation request of $1.45 million. Again, that's in the first Committee report. Recommendation is to pass as is. Questions? Comments, Concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

Members voting on House Bill 714, HD1 Chair's recommendation is to pass as is. [Roll Call] Chair recommendation is adopted.

Thank you.

Same request.

Okay. HB 714, HD1 for ECD Members [Roll Call] Chair the recommendation passes is adopted. Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, I forgot to wait. You guys good? All right, thank you. Members reconvening the Committee on Education. Today's date is the 13th. The time is about 2:15 p.m. and we're in conference room 309. First bill we have on our agenda is HB 133 HD1. This is with regards to watching anything doe and surfing as a sport.

First up we have is Department of Education offering comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. I'm Teri Ushijima, Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Curriculum Instructional Design, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments for this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for your testimony. Next we have Mayor Kawakami island of Kauai offering testimony support. We have Zoom testimony from outrigger and support.

Aloha. I'm Sarah Fairchild, the Executive Director of the Outrigger Duke Hanamoku Foundation and I submitted testimony and support. Just have a bit to add if you haven't read through the testimony.

The DOE Superintendent technically established surfing as an interscholastic Sport back in 2014 and at that time established extensive safety rules that are already in use with the schools that do have surf clubs and in Maui County where they do have interscholastic surfing.

The reason it hasn't become more hasn't spread statewide is due to the HHSAA bylaws which require that we reach certain thresholds in the different leagues about the number of schools participating in the league to Trigger League tournaments and then eventually trigger a statewide championship.

I explained this more deeply in my testimony due to the cost of complying with the safety rules and running these tournaments, surf meets rather it's. It's hard for public schools from low income areas to organize surf clubs and and eventually trigger the thresholds we need to have statewide surfing.

So this particular bill asks you to appropriate appropriate funding for public schools to get these clubs set up over one to two years which would then trigger the thresholds, trigger our first statewide tournament and make surfing a true interscholastic varsity level sport and that which at that time it would be run like other varsity sports that we already have.

Thank you.

Thank you for that explanation. Next we have Council Member Bolasan from Kauai in support. We have testimony via Zoom from Hawaii Lifeguard Association. Or is this actually in person? Please, please come up in support.

Please.

Hi chairs and Members of the Committee. My name is Kirsten Hermstead. I'm the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. We're a statewide nonprofit that supports lifeguards here in Hawaii. And junior lifeguards. We're in strong support of this bill. Kids who are in surfing programs are required to get lifeguard and life saving training.

And so this is right up our alley. The more people we have with that type of training, the safer our waters are and the safer our kids are. So we're in full support. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Next we have testimony from the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition offering testimony and support. We have Kaiser High School Surf Club in support. Lele Hua High School offering testimony support. And we have testimony from 17 individuals all in support. Anyone else? HB 133, HD1 please come up.

Hi, I'm Beth Matsuda from Wanai. I work with the Oahu schools High school surf clubs. Right Now I have 13 OIA schools. Next year I'm going to bring three more on. I have eight ILA schools. Next year we have 19 coming on. So next year I'm looking at 43 teams. So there is a strong interest in it.

Even as a club the kids are required to keep their 2.0. And as a surf team that we would be monitoring even closer. It also opens up opportunities for them to go into lifeguarding. Some of them can become spokesman for surf companies. I've had several that went into the maritime industry which is very lucrative.

We practice all our safety. We follow the DOE what was approved strictly and we add in some of our own. And I'm working with ocean safety now in trying to get enough junior lifeguard classes to accommodate the 43 schools.

Thank you. We don't have your testimony. Can you please submit it so we have it for our record? Okay, thank you so much. That's all I have on my list. Is there anyone else seeing none Members, Are there any questions? Please go ahead.

Actually ma'am, do you mind coming back up? Thank you for being here and I'm looking forward to having your written testimony. You know one of the things that's consistently mentioned DOE mentions it is the high costs. And there are a couple of other testimonies that mention it's cost thousands of dollars to cover the safety trainings.

How are you folks doing that currently and is that cost accurate?

The coaches ocean risk assessment. Except for this year, all the past years I've been paying for it out of my own pocket. So I've spent over $6,000 of my own money getting coaches certified. The junior lifeguard program is run through Ocean Safety.

Also we contract with Makai To Makan Makai, Makaha, which is Melpu'u's program, North Shore Lifeguards Association and Nakamakai.

Thank you for what you're doing. I have a quick follow up in the. I'm sure through your clubs you're also doing some of the like actual somewhat of a competition, I'm assuming.

Yes, we have competitions every week.

Okay. One of the. One of the issues that we're seeing with doe's testimony is that each competition they say would cost approximately $4,350. Is that accurate?

No.

Can you break down some of the costs for a competition?

I don't have the actual breakdown with me. I sent it into my, my ad. But for the entire four month season, it's about 40,000, $45,000.

$45,000 for a whole season. So the season is four months.

Right. And you have to accommodate all the schools.

Four months and you have a competition a week?

Yes.

Okay. That's a lot of head math. Sorry. No, but thanks. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing. Thank you.

Thank you for that question. Those questions, Members, any other questions? A quick question for doe, if you want to respond to that. Because those numbers don't. They're not parallel with each other.

Okay. Yes. We've consulted with someone who does do these events and if I could bring up Bryce Kaneshiro, he I think looked at it a little bit closer and he has some additional information.

Hello, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Bryce Kaneshiro. I am the extracurriculars administrator for Department of Ed. But also I am the OIA Executive Director. Actually I got the figures from Waianae who came from her. But I think the question was different. She was doing by the season. And your question was per event.

So that's what the breakdown that I had given earlier was. Per event that was given to us.

Those numbers still don't. They're still inconsistent.

So ours included 1,400 for judges, 200 for beach marshal, tabulator, 200 production staff, 352 lifeguards, 400 bonded security officer, 300 contest Director. We have your testimony. Okay, sorry.

The question is, why are the numbers so different?

Because I think. Well, she's talking about the entire season. Yeah, for four months. And that is. I mean, I don't want to speak for her, but yeah, I thought it was for the sea. That's why she said 45,000 and then. But your question was per event, which is one event. One week was 4350.

And that's what she was reading off was for one event.

Okay. Everyone understands. Yeah, go ahead.

I'm not fully sure I understand because her price and math may not be my strong suit, but her price, when you divide that down, it comes out to like $600 per event.

That's what we're saying. Oh, why. Why are the numbers so off? 40,000 for.

For the entire season. 40,000 for the entire season, which means with an event per week. So if you break that number down, it comes out to like, just around $600 as opposed to the $4,000. And I'm wondering if you folks are not accounting that there is potentially.

There are a lot of people that would volunteer their time to be a part of something like this.

I am not accounting that for the volunteers. Maui does a lot of volunteers, and they. They have told me that that's how they run most of their events as being very cost effective. But, you know, we have to look at it as what it would cost if you didn't have the volunteers.

You could have volunteers that last, but volunteers last as long as they want to volunteer.

You look at your numbers again and get back to us.

You look at your numbers again. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yes, thank you.

Follow up Chair. Can you please share?

Yeah.

So you've provided. Provided us with the reasons as to why we cannot have surfing as a interscholastic sport. But what has the Department done to engage with the community to identify ways where we can, I guess, address the barriers and make it happen?

Well, the. It's not. We cannot. We're not saying that we cannot have surfing. It is up to each league to decide. That's why Maui decided to have competitions. And for the kif, the bif, the ILH, and the oia, each league is. Is capable of, you know, you know, asking to see if they're.

They want to do surfing as a sport. I can only speak for the oia. That has not come up in our discussions as far as surfing.

Has OIA engaged with Maui and kind of looked at the best practices that they've done to adopt and work with them, to adopt this into OIA and see how to work with them so that it can translate to what the Department can do.

Well, I can tell you that we do have conversations through the leagues, and that is where I got the figures for what do they do and how do they get the cost down? Because when the cost that came out that we received, it was one of those where. How does Maui end up funding it.

And that's how I got the answer that they do have a lot of grassroots that donate a lot of their time and energy to keep their costs down in Maui for promoting the sport. And that is why we keep it at the club level for, for the schools that are interested in the sport.

Have any of the league groups reached out to you to kind of have a meeting and try and offer their perspective?

If you're talking about the other leagues. Ms.

Masuda or.

Yeah, that Ms. Masuda came to one of our own OIA meetings, the AD meeting at 1 time and presented surfing at that time.

Okay. Okay. Thank you Chair.

Thank you Vice Chair. Go ahead Rep.

So when, when did the DOE ever reach out to some subject matter experts in the field of surfing? Born and raised in W. I've been to anti rails surf meets. Uncle Buff, Uncle Melpool been to a mall.

I've never seen what a beach marshal or a tabulator or production staff or any of these for a surf meet. Surf meets are held every year. In fact, this weekend is Uncle Buff's. What is it 30-40 something? Did DOE reach out to these people on how to. That's where I got, that's where I got the.

That's pretty expensive, but that's where I got the figures from. We did reach out to someone to tell us how does it, what does it take to run a surf meet? And that's how I got this.

And then just following up $1,400 for.

Judges, again, I'm not making the prices. I just got it. I got it from them. And so if it's incorrect I can go and find out and see if you know, there are other judges out there because there could be other judges or organizations. I just reached out to one surfing community Member.

Just repeat the sentiment of my colleagues. The numbers don't match. Thank you.

Please look at your numbers again because this is not a new thing. Like sometimes the Department gives us numbers that are like way off. And so we're just trying to get to a place to where we can give a proper decision on these issues.

All right. Yes we will and we will go back and connect with, with the community Members that we first connected with cuz we. Yeah, it was from external, external sources. Thank you.

We appreciate it. Thank you. Member any other questions? Okay. See none. We're going to go on to the next Bill HB 1234. This is with regards to water safety education. It's a program within the doe. Proposed program within the doe. First up, we have DOE Offering Comments in person.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair. Teri Ushijima again from the Department of Education testifying on behalf of Superintendent. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you so much for being here. Next we have testimony in person from the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association offering testimony support in person.

Hello again. I'm Kirsten Hermstead from the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. Thank you again for your time. I stand on my written testimony which included three amendments. Suggested amendments, please. First, we wanted to add a classroom component.

We hear very often that there's difficulty getting kids to pools or to the ocean for swimming lessons and that there's a great program on Hawaii island by the Alex and Duke Dirigo foundation that is just a cognitive in the classroom program.

I could go on and on with anecdotal stories about how those kids have gone out and saved lives and done other things by taking just classrooms. So I would like to see this pilot include both pool and classroom cognitive training so that at minimum, they get that they get something right.

The second one is the timeline seems a little off. If they have to report back in January 2026 to you folks before the beginning of the session, that only gives them between if you approved it, like, if it got approved like today, that would only give them till December 31 to put up this program and run it.

And I feel like maybe that that's a little too tight to really do an effective job at building an important, very important quality program.

And then lastly, we'd like to see language that says that the kids get pre and post SK assessments so that we know what their skill level was at the beginning of the program and what it is at the end, because that's super important data about how these programs work and are they effective. So thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Next, we have testimony in person by Allison Schaefers. She's here.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair and Members. Thank you so much for allowing me to comment on this bill. We just recently published the Hawaii Water Safety Plan by the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition. And the data in the plan tells us why we need this program. Hawaii has the second highest rate of drowning in the nation.

For our residents, drowning is now the leading cause of death for Okeke ages 1 to 15. And less than 2% of our kids in the schools would be able to save themselves if they fell into the water from a drowning because of that. That's part of the reason I'm here.

We have a lot of big ideas in this plan, but some of the smaller grassroots ideas are just teaching kids to swim. That would be really helpful.

I'm a bereaved parent volunteer for the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition because my daughter drowned saving a child who could not swim while the circumstances of my daughter's drowning were in a flooded retention pond certainly would have helped. If the other child had been able to swim, she wouldn't have had to jump in to save him.

Increasingly, drowning across the world, and it's true in Hawaii too, I'm sorry to say, is an equity issue. And that's why I think these programs belong in our public and charter schools. If you look at the data, Native Hawaiians are drowning at 1.5 times the rate of the rest of the population.

And when it comes to our children, they are three times the drowning deaths of the pediatric ages in the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander groups. The sad thing is too, even within our water Coalition community, we have professionals in there who certainly understand the importance of learning to swim and drowning prevention.

And even they cannot afford lessons for their children. I just ask you humbly to consider the amount of good that this could possibly do. And the reason that I do think it belongs in the DOE is to address the equity issue.

I understand that they're working on some pilots that are one offs, but I think that it's important to have a program that we could scale up that is not a one off and that we collect the data so that we can expand this within schools all over. I'd just like to add one more thing before I leave.

Hawaii has the second highest drowning rate in the nation. I often hear from people, it's because we're surrounded by water because we have so many visitors. That's not true. About 50% of the deaths are our local residents.

The other thing is New York and New Jersey and Connecticut have the best drowning rates in the nation and they're also around water. Virginia and California are in the middle, so Florida is a little higher, but we're significantly higher. So it is not the water issue. The big difference there is swimming classes in their public schools.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. We also have individual testimony here in support from Darren Warden. Please come up.

Dan Norton. Yes. Hi, Dan. Yes, thank you. Aloha Chair, Vice Chair and committees Members of the Committee. Again, my name is Dan Warden, part of the Education Working group with the Hawaii Safety, Hawaii Water Safety Coalition. I did submit written testimony and I stand on it.

But I'm here to add a few comments, show some support and just be available for questions if there are any. We've heard about a lot of testimony where I'm sure there'll be more about why there's a need for water safety education in schools, and so I'm going to sidestep that for right now and not address the need.

I want to talk about why. I want to highlight a couple of things that speak to why providing aquatic safety education during school hours is really important and included in the National Water Safety Action Plan.

So first of all, there's various factors that affect the effectiveness of existing extracurricular options, not the least of which is that the cost is prohibitive to a lot of families. Those same families and communities usually don't have the time or transportation to get to programs that do exist in extracurricular activities.

Drowning disproportionately affects people of lower socioeconomic status, and the data shows that it's not due to any other factor than just a simple lack of opportunity. So being able to provide that opportunity to those families is super important.

The best way to reach the broadest number of children and provide that opportunity is to deliver quality aquatic safety education during school hours. Secondly, injury prevention researchers have studied thousands of drowning incidents and have identified 15 aquatic safety competencies.

These competencies can generally be thought of as the reasons that people drown, but more accurately, they're the areas of skill development that play a role in avoiding or recovering from hazardous situations. So when you think about that, the competencies can be organized into three domains.

There's aquatic safety knowledge, which speaks to the earlier testimony we heard about aquatic motor skills, which speaks to actually learning how to propel and do other sport, doing things in the water, and aquatic situation skills. Most extracurricular options don't address all or even the majority of these 15 aquatic safety competencies.

On one hand, you have the learn to swim programs that tend to develop the competencies in the motor skill platform domain, and I'll note they usually only focus on one or two of the competencies.

And on the other side of dry land programs, you're only working on safety knowledge and don't have the ability usually to address the situational experience or those motor skills. Neither type of program is a holistic approach to injury prevention, and again, drowning is a crisis with injury.

Quality aquatic safety education addresses each of these 15 aquatic safety competencies with the cognitive, effective, and psychomotor learning objectives approaching an issue as large as reducing drownings in the state is not going to happen overnight. So this bill appropriates funding for pilots during the 2025-26 school year and for the 2026-27 school year.

So in doing that, it does two really significant things. Number one, it recognizes the urgency of the moment. It's saying, hey, we got to keep the momentum going. We need something now to happen during these school years. Number two, it also recognizes that a one off pilot is not the full solution. So Hawaii is a unique state.

It's got unique geography. There's unique challenges. It's going to take time to work out the kinks. It's going to take time to identify which opportunities to work in certain areas and where. We need a little bit more work to provide those equity equitable opportunities for everybody. So thank you for your time and consideration of House Bill 124.

Thanks for the opportunity to testify. And again, I'm available for questions if there are any follow ups. What is the psycho motor learning objective? Psychomotor learning objective. Yeah. So there's three domains of learning, cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Psychomotor has to do with physical activities or connecting the mental and the physical together.

So a psychomotor, for example, a state standard doing psychomotor would be the ability to skip or running like actually moving your body and knowing how to move it in time and tempo and those kind of things. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Next we have testimony from Miriam individual also in support. Please come up.

Aloha Chair, Co Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Miriam Sibiu. I'm in favor of this Bill. Today I'm here as a parent sharing my experience, trying to register my child to swimming lessons.

On registration day, I'm logged into my County of Honolulu's online portal account with my phone and computer, ready to hit the registration button at 5pm sharp. I even take time off work to make sure that I don't miss my chance.

I say chance because the spots fill up within seconds, with the online portal often crashing quickly after opening. The population of kids aged 5 to 14 years in the County of Honolulu is 114,811 people, based on the latest census data.

In contrast, There were approximately 486 spots available for kids aged 5 to 12 years through the County of Honolulu's Learn to Swim Program for spring 2025, which represents less than 1% of the county's population. For that age group, swimming is the only sport that saves lives. Swimming is a life skill.

I urge you to consider supporting this Bill which will not only save lives, but make water safety education accessible in an equitable way to all keikis in Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. We also have individual testimony via Zoom, if she's available.

Sorry, I didn't hear. Did you hear? Did you call Sarah Fairchild?

No, but you can go ahead.

Okay.

Thank you. Sarah Fairchild, again with the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation.

Ready?

I forgot to mention last time that the foundation is also part of the Hawai'i Water Safety Coalition and that drowning is the leading cause of death for keiki in Hawaii, ages 1 to 15. Hawaii also ranks second in the nation for rate of drowning among residents.

We do have a real big problem, and I want to thank the Committee of Education for taking the time to discuss this today and think about a solution. It is a complex problem and it will likely take a complex solution.

But we're going to need a partnership, including the Department of Education, Department of Parks and Rec, pools on each island, and private pools, as well as nonprofits. And I think this Bill is a first step in that direction. It's a complex problem, but it's worth it to save the lives of our kids.

I have also had the same problems registering for classes not only with the Department of Parks, but also with the YMCA.

There just aren't enough affordable swim classes here for our kids, even for the parents that are trying to get them into swim classes, never mind the many, many who cannot afford them or do not have the time or the transportation to get there. Finally, just on the last Bill, I was trying to give you the numbers.

I have them for Maui. I actually wrote a white paper on surfing with the surf community. And I will email it to all of you after this call. Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much for that. Is there anyone else wishing to testify here in person or on Zoom? Please come up. If you're on Zoom. Please get ready. Okay, so we'll go to you next.

Thank you. Chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members. This is the first time I've done this, so I'm sorry. My name is Shelley Oates Walding and I am the founder of Ikaika. It's a Waterman's academy to perpetuate the Hawaiian Waterman's culture through safety skills and stewardship for children.

So when we've had other people testify that it's not affordable or to kids in Hawaii. I grew up in Australia, and there it's compulsory in school to have water safety programs like this. They are usually locally. The curriculum is locally produced. So I grew up on the Sydney Northern Beaches.

And so we have surf life saving, and every kid has to go through a program in third grade and then again in year seven. And I was a teacher, and then I taught teachers how to teach that curriculum. And it was, it still is.

You can find the figures that prove that it is life saving for the kids in school. The thing I found here is I used to teach in public school and then I started my own program, and it's way too expensive with the costs for me to be able to provide for kids who go to public schools.

92% of the kids who come to my program are all from public school- from private schools. I would love to have this Bill passed so then we can get to providing for all the kids in Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. And we actually don't have your testimony. Can you please make sure our clerks have it? Thank you so much. Please go ahead via Zoom. State your name and your affiliate.

Aloha. My name is Shirley De Rego. I'm a resident of Waimea on the Big island of Hawaii. And I'm also the President and founder of the Alex & Duke De Rego Foundation.

In addition to my written testimony that I submitted yesterday, I'd like to add that the Alex & Duke De Rego Foundation currently has a water safety education in middle schools here on Hawaii island in North and South Kohala, as well as Hamakua.

Water safety education is one of the most important public services that should be offered to children through a public school environment. If my organization, as small as we are, can provide this service, then I think that we should be able to, as a state, provide this. In 2023 and 2024, 647 students went through our program.

It's a two part. One is in the classroom and one is actually hands on interactive stations at the beach. 647 students were impacted and now I have school schools calling me to ask if I can bring my program to their school.

Most recently, I'm working with Alejandra Flores-Murakami, Hawaii County Parks and Rec Aquatics manager there to get Honoka'a school in some swim program there.

I'd like to point out that on our island, on Hawaii island, we have five schools, Honaka'a, Luapahoehoe, Pahoa, Kau and Konawaena, that have swimming pools on the school campus that are in walking distance from a child's classroom. That would make swim lessons in school very accessible during a classroom period.

And so it's my goal this year to try and implement that with Honoka'a as being our pilot program. But I would like to implore the Department of Education to find water safety education.

One of the most important things that Department of Education should implement in a child's overall learning capability, especially where drowning is the number one cause of death here in our island and the state.

I myself lost a child in a drowning accident and another child in an accident where help in providing CPR and first aid was not provided.

Last year, one of my students, one of the students that participated in our program from Kohala School, in the first aid portion of our program, after getting off of school one day, he walked home, and usually on his way home, he stops at his grandma's house and he found her unresponsive and he immediately knew to call 911 and he performed CPR on his grandma until the rescue could get there.

And when they asked him how he had learned that, he said he learned it at Hapuna with the Alex & Duke De Rego Foundation. So it just goes to show that when we teach our children, when we take this seriously.

We'll try to get her back. We're going to continue while we try to get her back. All right? Okay. We have County of Hawaii Parks and Recreation offering testimony, support, written testimony in support. Waikiki Neighborhood Board, Mr. Finley in support, written testimony. Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition in support.

And we have seven individuals all offering testimony in support. Anyone else wishing to provide testimony? We also have Hawaii Water Safety Coalition in support. Anyone else wishing to provide testimony? HB 1234 seeing none. Members, are there any questions? Please, go ahead.

So first I'd like to state that I think it's a really good thing that what you guys are going. However, the junior lifeguard program is free. You know, I know costs. Everybody has been saying cost. I'm sorry. I see her nodding in the back. I know when I took the junior lifeguard program, it was free.

Wait, wait, wait one second.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

We'll allow you to respond but later because we want to make sure that we keep this under control. Go ahead, continue.

So I know, costs, in your, in your testimony you said that parents can't afford it. So I represent Waianae Makaha and I cannot speak for my fellow representative who represents Nanakuli, Maili and some of those. There's not a pool on our coast. There's not a pool on our coast.

How would this, how would the appropriated funds or how would I explain to my taxpayers out there that's not going to benefit from this program that their taxes will be paying? I mean, is that a proper question? Chair I don't, I don't mean to.

Solid question for sure. I want to approach it first from recognizing that this pilot is a pilot. You know, the beginning of this program, it's not going to happen all at once.

The long term goal for sure is to provide aquatic safety education to every school, to every child in the state because the goal is to reduce drownings. There is no entity right now. There's no way to make that happen immediately. You know, it's going to take some time. It's going to take some building.

There's going to be some hurdles to overcome. One of those is clearly that there aren't pools over on the west side at all. I'm a firm believer that there is no one organization that's going to be the full solution.

I think that different communities have different needs that are going to require different solutions to be able to provide them. So what we're looking at right now with the pilot is saying, hey, what are some solutions that can work for some walking distance schools for other schools that are close by?

How can we do some of those things while also acknowledging that there are way other bigger challenges, giving us some time to say, hey, at least we're making an impact. We are working on a program that can be delivered and then finding other community partners that can maybe either work in the ocean.

The organizations I've worked with so far have not been able to secure insurance for it. But I know the Kamakai has had some luck with extracurricular programs that their own subsidy is doing. So there are options that can provide that.

And it may not all be one solution, but I think working together to try and find a solution that works with everybody, it's got to start somewhere. And so if you, if that's what you go back to the taxpayers and say, hey, we're starting and we're working at a bigger goal.

That's the other big thing about this Bill right here is saying, hey, we want it to be- the report should come back and talk about what can we do. And obviously we know some of the challenges already.

You know, it's not unknown, but without being able to have that accountability and say, hey, what is our plan moving forward? It's just private entities that are kind of pushing it. And then who knows if you're at the whim of the people who are going to be out on west side to do it or not.

Thank you. And I'm glad you brought up Nakamakai. Duane's doing a wonderful thing. Duane is just amazing in his program. But he also travels all around the island and his program is free. He does it. So would this be a benefit or maybe a substitute?

I think multiple programs can work. You know, Nakamakai is doing some amazing stuff. I'm aware that the Department of Education does have Nakamikai materials available in classrooms right now specifically targeting fourth grades. But it's.

A memo was sent out to say, hey, we, I think it's a requirement of all elementary schools to require at least one grade of having ocean safety education in a classroom setting. And so that's an amazing start to the issue. But again, as I mentioned before during testimony, quality aquatic safety education has to incorporate all 15 competencies.

If you're just doing knowledge based stuff, you're missing out on 2/3 of the reasons that people drown. And you know Duane does do amazing job. Again, there are things that he does in the water, but it's not as widespread as it can be.

And I know that they don't address all of the competencies either in their program, which is something that I'd love to work with them on.

I appreciate that. I, I just wanted to reiterate that I do like the idea, but when we talk about parents not being able to afford it on the private side, a program like this, a taxpayers are going to have to foot the Bill. So it's, you know, you see my concern. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Chair, Chair, if I may, can I get clarification from junior lifeguard lady? Yeah, sorry, I forgot your name.

As you come up, if you can, please also respond after his. After the rep's question, please come up. And if you could also respond to the reps inference that some of these programs are free. After you answer his other question.

No, that. That was my- That was my question because I'm not going to give away my age. But when I was a teenager back in the 90s, I was a junior lifeguard. I took the program, you know, so it was free. Did it change? Is it not free anymore?

No. So again, I'm Kirsten Hermstad from the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. Yes. All four counties have ocean safety bureaus that have junior lifeguard programs that are now funded by the county budgets. That has not always been the case. And the programs are free, but they are at capacity. Very similar to Miriam's testimony.

We put the registration up and it's gone. And the lifeguards who are working those programs are working overtime shifts. Right. They're working their regular shifts and then they're coming in and they're dedicated and they love it. So that's, you know, but it is a capacity issue for sure. And there was one other. oh, I've lost it now.

But to answer your question, yeah, it's a capacity issue for junior guards.

Thank you. Rep Members, any other questions? Okay, please go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. I want to take a moment to thank all the testifiers who have poured their energy and their love into this measure. I know this is not our first year, so I appreciate your consistency. I also appreciate the DOE trying to work with us in this. I have a question for Ms. Schaefers.

I know you had your hand up. I wanted to allow you the opportunity.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think our Members did a great job answering the representative. But there were a couple points that they didn't make that I wanted to on that line of questioning. So one of them was we talk about an equity issue. So, yes, junior lifeguards might be free.

Some of those other Parks and Recreation programs might be affordable. There is a capacity issue, but there's also an issue, I firmly believe, I wrote the water safety plan for our coalition.

And looking at the data and looking at the data of other states, I firmly believe that, you know, Hawaii has the best watermen and women in the world. So why are our native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, and why are our kids struggling here with drowning? I firmly believe it's a lot of our cost of living issues.

And so when we talk about it being free, it's not just that. The equity issue is also being able to have a parent to drive you to the lesson and having the time to take you. And unfortunately, being surrounded by water. Just because your parent is working three jobs doesn't mean that the neighbor might not take you.

They might take you to the beach and you might be exposed to water, but maybe you can't swim because you haven't had that opportunity. The other thing I wanted to address is several of our members-so this is a scalable program.

And part of the reason we'd like to see scale, have it be scalable is because we are working on solutions that address the things that you're talking about. The other equity issue is yes, on Oahu's west side, there is not a single public swimming pool. Disgraceful, really. But there are solutions that other states are using.

They have container pools that are actually on wheels. They use containers like we make houses out of here. And. And for the mats and containers, they can put water in them, they can put them in a cart, they can take them to the pool.

But we actually have members that are in talks of doing that and scaling that up. So that might be a solution where we could take it in to a school, put it in the parking lot. We've had discussions about other state facilities that might be able to accommodate that. But again, that's a process to scale up.

These are just in the early parts of discussion. We'd have to buy the containers, we'd have to retrofit them. But other states are doing that very successfully.

Thank you so much. Thank you Chair.

Thank you so much. DOE please. Thank you for being here. And so your testimony articulates that, you know, you're doing some of this pilot work.

Yes.

This is not something that you folks want to take on.

We currently, this semester, we have our PE specialist here, George Santillo. He's been working to create this pilot. So we currently we're about to start. In fact, we're working with Dan, with some of our Honolulu schools that are within walking distance to existing pool, and we have the capacity to take up to 200 students.

So part of this is to see what a program might be very similar to what this Bill is proposing to focus on those competencies, those standards.

And we are requiring a report to be given to us at the end so that we can study some of the factors because we want to know how much instructional time we're going to devote to this. And we know that this is a very important matter. We agree.

And so as our testimony says, we have been making efforts to do water safety in all of our schools by providing materials.

So 200 students currently instructional time. You also mentioned what is the differences between what you're doing now and the proposal?

I think it's very similar because it is within walking distance to the pool. We are focusing on the competencies. It's more than one school. I think the Bill proposes to start with the one school in the pilot. We currently have at least two and maybe three schools within walking distance and each school is a little unique.

So our report, we're hoping to gain more information so that it could be useful as we look at any future actions regarding additional water safety measures.

You're stressing that it's very similar. So why wouldn't you be in support of the Bill then?

Well, because we have. We're not not in support. We think we're doing it now. And we think that to do another pilot, it takes a lot of upfront planning and time with our one specialist. And so we would have to do procurement and the facilitation.

We would need to find the location and coordinate with the administrators and teachers. So we think it would make sense for us to see what the results are of this pilot and then use that information to perhaps inform what might be possible next steps.

So then the proposal is significantly different than what you're doing now?

No, it's very similar.

It is similar.

It is similar. But to have another pilot at another site to start that would be repeating this before this current pilot is done and we have a report on what works, what we should do better and get more information.

Okay, thank you. Go ahead.

For DOE. Thank you so much. And we've had conversations about this as well, to my knowledge, because it kind of sounds like what you just told the Committee is that this is already happening. But to my knowledge, there is no school that has actually yet done. Started it. Right.

We're starting it this semester. Yes, yes.

So there's no student that has actually touched water up until this point. Through the, through the pilot that you're mentioning.

Oh, yes, I think. May I invite George up here?

Hi, George Centeio, Education Specialist, the DOE. The question?

So I wanted to clarify because it sounds like you folks are already doing this. This is so great. But to clarify and from the conversations we've had, there's no student that's actually touched water. You're still struggling to get the schools to participate. You've named the schools and started the procurement process, but you haven't actually done.

Yeah, we're up and running. They're going to start scheduling with the schools. The current program we are implementing was scheduled to start end of February with the classroom instruction also because the water's cold during these months. So we purposely held off and it's to be executed over the next few months to close out the school year.

So that was a time frame for our proposal with, with our partner.

And to my knowledge that comes from a kind of like a one off GIA, some money that you folks have have gotten. Would it be, would this Bill not support the work that you're already doing then in allowing you to expand that or to continue that work and roll into what hopefully would be scaling the project up?

So I think the question is, would this..

assist you in continuing the program? So there's no start and then stop.

because it would come with more secure funding? Is that the question?

Yes.

For one pilot. For another pilot. Because when we read the Bill, it was to establish one pilot at a school within walking distance to a pool and it would be funding to do that pilot. So. So is that not right? I don't.

Well, you've, you're, you're, you've just talked about how you've already, you've already kind of started a pilot program.

Yes.

Would this not give you the opportunity to continue that pilot?

Oh too, at the same place?

At the same. For the same program? Yes. Okay. I, Yeah, I guess my mind was that we would do it at some other location and we would have to repeat the whole process on what we started.

I mean you already have the process set up, so could you not just expand with the use of this is really what I'm trying to get at. But I've taken up a lot of time with this Bill so I will toss it back to Terry. Okay, sorry.

Does your program address the 15 water competencies?

It does, right? Yes, it does. Yeah.

The program that was one of the expectations that they're doing addressing the competencies and pre and post assessment in the water.

Okay, thank you. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing then we're going to move on. Thank you so much. Next we have HB 1210. This is with regards to the Department of Education and anti bullying procedures. First, we have DOE offering comments.

Aloha Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, and members of the committee. Kinau Gardner. I'm the Assistant Superintendent for the Office of Student Support Services and the department stands on its written testimony which provides comments and thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you so much. Next we have AG's office offering comments in person.

Good afternoon, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, members. Anne Horiuchi, Department of the Attorney General. As we noted in our testimony, one the bill does not define bullying and it's also not clear if victim of bullying is meant to apply apply only to students or perhaps others.

What we noted is that if it's. If the bill is meant to apply specifically to students, there is currently a definition of bullying that's in Chapter 19 of the Hawaii Administrative Rules. If the bill is meant to apply to more than students, then a definition of bullying should be included in the bill.

Also, as I mentioned with Chapter 19 that already has in subchapter 8 a complaints procedure and investigation of disability discrimination harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and or retaliation. So to the extent the section that's to be added to Chapter 302 in this bill, if that is meant to, there's an overlap with Chapter 19 currently.

So we think that the bill should include a provision that would authorize the DOE to adopt administrative rules to effectuate the purpose of the new section.

Thank you for expertise. Thank you for being here. Next, we have Pride at Work Hawaii in support via Zoom. Okay. We also have Hawaii State HSTA offering testimony in support via Zoom.

Hello, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica. This is Sarah Milianta-Laffin. And on behalf of the Hawaii Teachers Association, what we liked about this bill was it was bringing up an important topic because our families are still not getting. And families and teachers agree that transparency is not always there in the bullying process.

And I say that because they do define bullying in the Chapter 19 process. But what happens at a lot of schools like mine is the kids get a Chapter 19 lecture in August and they get one when they come back in January.

And it's really not touched on other than those times unless the kid is having to go to the office and deal with this. I'm lucky to have a great administrative team at my campus where they keep the teachers, the families, the students in the loop of investigations and what's going on.

But when parents are not hearing back at other schools about what's happening with bullies fast enough or bullying, and I guess we definitely needed to find the topic, what we're seeing is families turn to social media and As a teacher, what makes me really nervous is that teachers are getting doxed on social media or trashed within minutes of a kid getting home from school because they're not being kept aware of what's going on.

So my hope would be in the way this bill was written that there would be more transparency in trying to explain how we're keeping families informed of what's going on if there is an investigation happening. But it does seem that the definition of bullying can vary campus to campus or even in a campus administrator to administrator.

So I think this is an important topic that I hope that we have and definitely something to think about. And I want to shout out Rep. Kila. I know he got on social media recently to diffuse something on one of his campuses and I know I see a lot of you present in those spaces too.

And I just want to make sure that we're protecting our students and protecting our teachers. Aloha.

Thank you for your testimony. Next, we have two individual testifiers, both written and in support. Anyone else? HB 1210, please come up. Angela. Angela, you could come up first. Please state your name and your affiliate.

Angela Melody Young, Cares in strong support. This is our proposal and so we're a small team with an after school program registered with the Hawaii After School Alliance database and we have a very small team. So we're really proud of this and hope we can have an opportunity to at least get to the Senate.

And the inspiration for this was when I was in the health room at a school, I noticed flyers explaining health with graphic designs and I thought that this would be such a good idea to help students with recognizing signs of bullying at schools and then to help facilitate the relationships.

So bullying is something every parent, teacher and counselor has to deal with. And if this bill is enacted, this will be a tool to help facilitate relationships at school with stressful environments and terrible learning atmospheres. Students are not at their best to perform when there's so much going on and it's hard to focus.

So I'm incredibly happy to have the support from HSTA. I helped the teacher with their period bill a few years ago. So it's really nice to have the community working together with some of the parents and counselors that we outreach and have like worked on things with to also be supportive now.

And we also have the support of the state's DD Council advisory council. And so last year we had moms of victims testifying and this year I've been so busy kind of helping with other people and I didn't want like a repeat of things from last year.

So for this year's legislative process, this outreach was more focused on how our work in the community has helped teachers, counselors, because when we perform our outreach, we have positive results. So bad boys and bad girls testified with us last year and they got permission to post flyers at a school.

And if you need victims and the mom's testimonies, you can go to the hearing from last year where this bill successfully passed out of this committee. And my third grade student had so much fun doing this activity activity to design a flyer as an example for a student led activity to gather community support for bullying.

And what this bill can help with is really to enhance student protection measures. And many times students are not aware that behaviors that are perpetuated are like bullying things. So students and teachers are also academically, academically focused that they don't have time to process emotions in the drama that happens at school.

Boyfriends and girlfriends fight, exes start fighting, girl fights, drama happens. And as a community, it's a learning process. So in October of 2022, Cares helped testify for bill 59 at the city council to educate all counties office that works with kids to be prepared to deal with bullying. And it was successfully enacted.

And I was the delegate from the Miss American Scholar pageant with the platform of Be Respectful and Value Everyone, which has the anti bullying organization with partnerships to educate and to empower those who are bullied.

In the legislative session last year, this was introduced to help things that have happened at school and to make a real difference in the community. The students and parents got active by organizing a parade and everyone got to make signs and the impact was incredible and I think moms and teachers felt equipped.

So this bill can really be a fun awareness activity at schools to inspire community outreach and an organized response from parents, teachers and counselors. So right now the DOE is excelling at reporting bullying and has a robust set of bullying procedures plans, for example the Speak Now app.

So yet in the past few years there hasn't been a successful bullying law mandated. So I think this can be really helpful. And responding to the AG's comments, this would specifically have to do with students who are bullied because for adults, the adult training is different. That's a different pathway.

And then I think the way to define it, according to the administrative rule, is a really good way to define it. So thank you so much.

And so as a founder of this grassroots movement, Cares, and as Miss Honolulu Chinatown 2025 from the Miss Hawaii USA pageant, which is from the internationally recognized pageant, Miss Universe, which gathers women across the world to raise awareness about mental health awareness for teens and girls. This is the platform that I'm advocating about for the pageant.

And I hope that this will also inspire a lot of other students and teachers, regardless of race, gender, ideology, to be brave and to stand up to bullying. And this will help enhance also basic civil rights for protected classes, as well as basic civil rights for all students. Thank you.

You submit your testimony. Thank you. Okay. I don't have it. That was a lot. Please come up.

Thank you. Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. My name is Savannah Peskin. I'm with the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. I'm here on behalf of Daintry Bartoldus, our Executive administrator. We did submit late testimony to your committee clerk, but we are in support of HB 1210. Just going to highlight and stand on our testimony in support.

But our council's health, children, and youth committee did a statewide mental health survey finding that 52 of parents knew that their children that had intellectual or developmental disabilities had been bullied and 32% were unaware. And so we also found that students with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be bullied than other children.

Yet many families don't know how to report this or get help for their children. So this, this bill, we are in support because it ensures clear, accessible procedures for when individuals are bullied so that parents, teachers, school staff can all ensure a safer environment and reduce the long term mental health impacts of bullying. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. That's all I have on my list. Is there anyone else? Seeing none. Members, are there any questions? Go ahead. Vice Chair.

I think, yeah, we've kind of. I think this comes up every year with the committee, but for Chapter 19, it is. It is Chapter 19. It is. Have you been able to take a look at Chapter 19? It is 39 pages. Is this? The entire 39 pages gets distributed to each student every year?

Have there been other ways in other forms that this can be more conducive to students?

Yeah, that packet goes home every year. It's a little booklet. But there are other ways that we communicate the information that's in there directly in terms of instruction. What's in that flyer or that booklet? So they do receive, you know, direct instruction about Chapter 19. Yeah.

And I know you're. You've just come onto the role, but the app too, that you guys use, have you also been able to take a look at that? And, you know, in this space, kind of. What are your kind of thoughts on what the and the direction and the department?

Because it is an ongoing issue, very serious issue. And it does really. I mean, the extent that we, you know, us legislators, we hear about it from our parents and the extent that they have to pull their kids out of school, transfer to private schools, which they can't even afford, and it's an ongoing issue. Right.

It's like, even if they report it a lot of often it just goes unresolved. And so just wanted to like, get a sense from you. Yeah. What is, what are your hopes and like what you, you know, you're, you're hoping to do in this space.

So I think the Speak Now app has been another great avenue because people can report anonymously, but we are looking at ways to expand that and improve that so that we can respond in a quicker way. So we are exploring different kinds of platforms to maybe enhance what we do for Speak Now.

I think Speak now, because it's anonymous, we get all kinds of complaints, not just about bullying, but I think you're right, bullying is a problem. It's pervasive and it's something that we are continuously working on in terms of our PBIS, our proactive behavior intervention systems, in terms of our SEL lessons that we do and prioritize.

But it's an ongoing effort always to keep communicating the importance of making sure that everyone feels safe.

Thank you. Quick follow up question, Chair, to Millie.

Go ahead.

Yeah, Millie, I know you also hear about this a lot. What is the proper intervention? I mean, what should, how can, what to what extent can teachers intervene? To what extent should administration intervene?

And what is the role of, I mean, I mean, you know, everyone says, I mean, it's up to the parent and it's, you know, it's our responsibility, but it's also, you know, sometimes it's out of our control. So what has been your experience and at which point should we be, should we intervene in the school environment?

Thank you for the question, representative. And you know, I think one thing I will appreciate that Chapter 19 has done is it gives them tiers of where the severity is. Right.

Is bullying like a kid said something mean to me in class as a teacher I can address and we can keep on with a lesson, or is it something more severe that actually has to be investigated?

And so when we're talking about an investigation, that means as a teacher, I am stopping my instruction for a moment, I'm writing an email or calling my administrators so they know exactly the timestamp, the details so that can be given to that administrator that could also be calling security to have a student removed to take into the counselor's office or the admin's office for that investigation.

But what I have heard and again, and I have a school that's amazing at this. My principals actually brought in HPD recently to have families sit down together and work out some family conflicts that have kind of come from the community to our school. But parents always want those timely updates.

And I know unfortunately with our processes and investigations we have to protect all students. So there are some details that parents want that we cannot give. And I respect the department for that situation. But we've got to keep folks updated. So I've always wondered like can we talk about a flowchart like this is bullying, this is not.

Or can parents be updated in a more timely way about how investigations are going. Everybody at school, school is working to take care of our of kids. Like that's all of our jobs.

But a lot of these things I will say especially with the increased social media issues, a lot of things are coming from outside of school to school and taking a lot of our resources as well.

Thank you. Thank you.

Did I answer your question right?

Yes. Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. We're going to move on HB 622. This is with regards to DOE and charter school or computer science reporting. First up, we have DOE offering testimony support in person.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair. Teri Ushijima again representing the Department of Education and the department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. That's all we have on our list. Anyone else? HB 622. Seeing none. Members, any questions? Seeing none. We're going to move on to HB 864 HD1. This is regarding DOE and workers comp coverage. First, we have DOE in support in person.

Good afternoon. Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, Representative Oates and Representative Souza. Kane Shiro, Director of Workforce Development Branch for the Department of Education. On behalf of Superintendent Hayashi, we stand on a written testimony in support of this measure. And thank you for your support of our work based learning opportunities.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Next we have Maui Chamber of Commerce in support. We have Lowest Quality Home Healthcare Services LLC in support and two individuals offering testimony also in support. Anyone else? HB864HD1 seeing none. Any questions? You see none. Moving on to the next Bill, HB 1065.

This is with regards to the early Child Educator Special Fund. First up we have is Board Chair Yamashita offering testimony and support, written testimony and support. Next we have EOEL offering testimony and support in person.

Hi Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica and Members of the Committee. I just wanted to note that our board chair is actually in the middle of our board meeting, so she's not able to be here today. EOEL is in strong support of HB 1065 and thanks the Committee for hearing this bill.

This bill is a housekeeping measure that deletes section 302L10 which established the Early Childhood Educator Special Fund and redirects any special stipend funds repaid by a recipient to the Early Learning Special Fund instead. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. That's all I have on my list. Anyone else? HB 1065. This is housekeeping. See none. Members, any questions? See none. Moving on to the next bill, we have HB 1066. This is with regards to the ELB membership. First up we have ELB Board offering testimony support and EOL offering testimony and support.

Hi Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, Members of the Committee, I'm Yuko Arikoa Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. We stand in strong support of HB 1066 and thanks the Committee for and thank the Committee for hearing this bill.

Last year is brought to EOL's attention that the Early Learning Board was previously designated to serve as a Hawaii State Advisory Council for the purposes of the Head Start act and as a result the Early Learning Board needs to comply with certain requirements of the Federal Head Start Act.

In 2023, Act 170 restructured the composition of our Early Learning Board and this bill makes changes needed to realign the new composition with the Head Start Act.

So the language of the bill as introduced as the State Director of Head Start Collaboration as an ex officio Member and invites the President of the Head Start Association of Hawaii or the President's Designee to serve as an ex officio Member.

The Head Start act also requires that the Board include a representative of local providers of early childhood education and development so services. The membership of our current board already includes an individual who satisfies this requirement.

However, EOEL recommends that the bill be amended to ensure that this requirement is not accidentally overlooked in the future years and has suggested language in our written testimony for your consideration. Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here. Okay, that's all I have on my list. Anyone else? HB 1066 seeing none. We're going to move on. Members. We're going to. I'm going to note that we have a 9pm deadline. We have to get things to the lawyers.

Committee reports out and execute it by 9pm Otherwise, these bills are dead. The ones that move forward. Next, we have HB867HD1. This is with regards to public schools, state parks and full accessible playgrounds.

First up, we have DOE offering comments and and you can of course expound upon your testimony, but I'm going to ask if you can stand. Otherwise.

Audrey down for Superintendent Hayashi. We submitted testimony with comments. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony. We have DLNR offering comments.

Of state parks. We stand on our written testimony with comments and just want to add white state parks. We don't have playgrounds.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Next, we have Budget and Finance offering comments. We have the Hawaii State Council for Developmental Disabilities in support, in person.

Thank you. Bart Olis, Executive Director for the Hawaii State Council. We'd like to stand on our test point of strong support and thank the Legislature for changing the term to accessible parks. It's much better than special needs. Thank you for that.

Thank you for your testimony. Next, we have the Disabilities and Communication Access Board and support via Zoom or in person. In person, yes.

Hi, Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Elizabeth Pearson. I'm the planner and ADA coordinator with the Disability Communication Access Board testifying on behalf of our Executive Director. We just want to say that we appreciate the changes made in the last Committee, but we have some further changes we have recommended.

We did include a strikeout and complete replacement in our testimony. If you have any questions, we're available. I do have our facility access coordinator with me as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next we have Hawaii Disability Rights center offering testimony and support via Zoom.

Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Woodson. I'm Lou Erticek. I'm the Director of the Disability Rights Center and Chair, I know that you've chaired the Education Committee for some time, and so you're very familiar with what happens in school. And so community inclusion for people with disabilities starts when they're young.

So just imagine being that child with a disability in a school who everybody goes out at recess to play, and you're the kid who's got to sit in a corner because you can't play with everybody because the playground is not accessible. Traumatizing. And so the whole goal of the disability movement is to be inclusive.

And so it's really important that we have accessible playgrounds. So I know that this bill probably needs some more work. I mean, I can read the testimony. I can see the proposed suggestions. I like DCAB's idea about reinserting language about wheelchair accessible in particular.

But I certainly hope you'll keep this Bill moving so that we can try to make some progress on the issue. Thank. So thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony. I saw HSTA there. Does HST have testimony here in support?

No. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. We have three individuals all offering testimony support. Anyone else? HP867HD1? Yes please.

My name is Kylie Swan. I'm a strong supporters measure because school playground or community playground is most priority in this bill. And I have the. In my neighborhood we have a playground and it's ADA compliant. And please let me know if you. If you have any questions we have and thankful for my testimony.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Anyone else seeing none. Members, any questions of a quick question for dlnr? Thank you again for your testimony. You articulated that you represent state parks and we do not have any playgrounds.

My question is in central Maui, as you know, we developed a state park there called the Central Maui Regional Sports Complex. During that process, we incorporated community insight and input and as a result of that we made a lot of changes to how we actually ultimately ended up with the design of that park that did not request.

The community did not request any playground equipment. But if they would have, we would have definitely take that into consideration. And so.

No, I remember that project that was a state funded CIP for the ball field. So. Wait, I'm not finished. Zero, I'm sorry.

Yeah. So don't you, don't you think then that it would be appropriate to keep state parks in this bill?

No, I, you know, we provide ad accessibility to our campgrounds and our comfort stations and hiking trails where, where we can do so. And, and we do not. I don't have any state parks in our system where we have what's actually a playground or playground equ.

Central Maui was a state funded cip but we transferred that to the Maui County folks after we constructed the playground. So Central Maui fields aren't. They're not under our jurisdiction.

But my point is that the state developed that park and we had to take community input. We made changes, we adjusted the lights, we reduced the number of baseball fields on that park. And so wouldn't it be appropriate to keep you folks in if there was a request to create a playground in.

The future we could recommend especially if it's being transferred to the county like that one was. So state parks got the cip but we didn't build the playgrounds. You know, we contracted with our engineering division and worked closely with Maui County on the design and construction of those.

So to offer maybe a friendly amendment, we could put in, you know, any state funded CIP that has an intention of being transferred to a county for a municipal recreational experience then Absolutely.

But as I said for our State park division, you know, we have Diamond Head and Akaka Falls and the Pali Coast State Wilderness Parks and Malaika Hana and Iolani Palace. We don't have features that we manage that have municipal type of playgrounds.

What do you folks do if you don't have expertise in any particular field?

Do you contract that out? Well, we always have design consultants. Particularly like right now we're revising our campgrounds and we have Ada elements so that we can make our campgrounds better and more Ada accessible.

So certainly in those cases then we hire design consultants so that we can be compliant and make sure that we provide fully accessible campgrounds and access to our beach parks. Thank you so much.

Okay Members, any other questions? See now moving on to the next bill, HB89. This is with regards to the Teacher Home Assistance Program. First up, we have DOE offering comments in person.

Afternoon Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Shauna Rai, Director of Personnel Development for the Department, testifying on behalf of Superintendent. Department stands on its written testimony providing comments.

Thank you so much. Next we have AG's office offering comments in person.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members and [unintelligible] from the AG's office. As we noted in our testimony, we think the bill should probably have some language regarding the repayment of the voucher if, if circumstances require that. So we've provided suggested language in our testimony.

Thank you so much. Next we have OHA offering testimony and support. Hawaii Council, County Council Office of Council Services Division offering testimony and support HSTA and support via zoom.

Hello. Hi Chair, Vice Chair, Sarah Milanfo Lafin on behalf of hsta, I think whenever it comes to teacher housing, we always kind of want to say, please pay us a living wage so we can afford housing. But we really do appreciate this Committee's commitment to multi pronged ways to keep our teachers here.

If teachers can't live here, we can't teach here. I will say as myself, I only have housing right now. I've been teaching for 19 years because a friend of ours who also teaches is sabbatical. So they will be back in June and at that point I don't know where I'm going to live.

This is the time of the year where a lot of teachers find unstable housing as we're trying to see what shifts are happening. So we also. There was a similar vehicle that was heard yesterday in housing. They deferred that vehicle in preference of this vehicle.

So we'll hope that you'll continue to move this one forward because we do like it. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next, we have HDA offering testimony, offering comments actually and we have 14 testifiers all in support one offering comments. Anyone else? HB89HD1 seeing none. Members, are there any questions? Seeing that we're going to go on to the last Bill. HB 1437. This is with regards to get exemptions for nonprofit schools.

First we have dotax our free comments. Thank you. Le Jardon in support Kauai Christian Academy in support Sacred Hearts in support Calvary Chapel in support Hongwonji Mission and support Vatassori Community and support Hawaii Baptist Academy and support Hawaii Associations of Independent Schools and support Holy Nativity and support Waimea County School.

In support Tax foundation offering comments available via Zoom Yolani School and support to individuals also support. Anyone else? HB 1437 seeing none. Members, are there any questions? DeltaX is not here. zero, please, come on.

Clinton Piper, Department of Taxation.

Thank you so much. You. You referenced in your testimony that you need a state agency to register entities in good standing. DCCA does that. Do you recommend DCCA for that?

I'm loath to recommend any particular agency. I would note the Department of Taxation does also have a quote unquote registry where there is a $20 application fee. They do have to satisfy the requirement that they are a non profit in order to qualify.

There is also the Department of the Attorney General Tax and Charities Division which might be inserted there depending on the intention behind the Bill. So I just. We just wanted a little bit more specificity as to who what is considered to be good standing in order to administer this.

Do you know what DCCA's fee is? I do not. Okay, thank you so much. Members, any other questions? Hey, thank you. Reconvening for decision making. First up, Members, we have HB133HD1. This is with regards to DOE and surfing and interscholastic sports.

Members, I would like to move this to continue the discussion passing this, simply defecting the date to July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote, please.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you. Members moving on to the next Bill HB 1234 Water Safety Education Program within DOE. Members, there was quite a bit of individuals that testified on this proposal all of which was actually different perspectives which I think was unique and so we will move this knowing that it needs a little bit of work but we're going to move it to simply defecting the date to July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you. Members, going on to HB 1210 this is DOE and anti bullying procedures. Members, for this particular proposal the the prescribed language in there doesn't significantly do any value add to what's actually happening at the schools right now.

That doesn't mean that we don't need to do more to protect our students and teachers but we will defer this proposal. Defer. Next we'll go to HB 622. This simply pushes back the reporting date with regards to our progress in computer science and DOE schools.

The recommendation's to pass this with a HD1, defecting the date to July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Moving on to HB 864 HD1 this extends workers comp coverage for recent graduates for work based learning opportunities. Members, pretty straightforward pass as is, is the recommendation. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Moving on to HB 1065 this is the Early Childhood Education Special Fund. Really this is just housekeeping redirecting repaid stipend funds to a proper, the proper repository. Would like to pass this simply defecting the date July 1st, 3000. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

HB 1066 this adds the Head Start Director for the state to the ELB Board, which is really just a federal requirement per the Head Start Act. The recommendation's to pass this with the HD1, defecting the date. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you. Members, moving on to HB 867 HD1. This is public schools, state parks, and fully accessible playgrounds by the year 2030. Members, the recommendation's to pass unamended. Questions, comments, concerns?

Brief comment.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. I want to thank you for hearing this bill. I think it's really important that we create an inclusive atmosphere for our disabled students because it really fosters the general acceptance of those who may be a little different than usual. So thank you for hearing and passing this bill. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for your work on this, Representative. Greatly appreciate it. Any other comments, questions, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote please.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you. Members, moving on to HB 89 HD1. This is the Teacher Home Assistance Program. I had a conversation, Members, with the lead chair. So I do have prior concurrence to make some recommended changes. Proposing a HD1 changing the term "hard to fill" to "hard to staff". That's to provide some statutory consistency within the DOE statute.

Also Members, we're going to accept the AG's recommendation to incorporate language just so we have a way to recapture the funds for those recipients that do not follow the terms of the program. And lastly on page five, line one.

Just going to make sure this is applicable for teachers that taught in public school, that's traditional and charter school. So voting on HB 89 HD1. Questions, comments, concerns?

Chair, is this HD1 or HD2?

We're voting on HD1, but it's a proposed HD2.

Okay, thank you.

Okay. Any questions or concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you. Members, going on to the last bill, HB 1437. This is GET exemptions for gross proceeds earned at and to the benefit for nonprofit schools.

Members, recommending a proposed HD1 on page two, line six just to clarify, the entity that designates good standing will have Dole tax do that since they said that they can. Also per their recommendation will change the term school sponsored student activity to nonprofit school sponsored activity groups and defect the date. Questions, comments, concerns? Vice Chair for the vote.

[ROLL CALL]

Thank you.

Thank you.