STAND. COM. REP. 347

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1506

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1506 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR ISPED CLERK TYPISTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education (DOE) for ISPED clerk typist positions.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association and numerous individuals submitted testimony in support of this bill. DOE and the Hawaii Government Employees Association submitted testimony in support of the intent of this bill.

Your Committee finds that special education is a grave concern of this State, and to be in compliance with the Felix Consent Decree, DOE needs readily available case information about special education students. The ISPED database is the medium for gathering and analyzing this information and is, therefore, a necessary component for compliance. Your Committee further finds that the ISPED program is not user-friendly and consumes too much of the special education teachers' time. Special education teachers, who are so critical to DOE, find themselves devoting more of their time to data entry than to their instructional workload.

 

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1506 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

 

____________________________

ROY M. TAKUMI, Chair