Report Title:
Schools; Parent Community Networking Center Programs
Description:
Makes a $2,288,900 appropriation to establish new parent community networking centers and for further development of existing centers.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1918 |
TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to parent-community networking center programs.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. (a) The legislature finds that according to the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future, forty-nine per cent of student success is attributed to families, forty-three per cent to teachers, and eight per cent to small class size. There also is overwhelming research evidence of the critical need for an integrated comprehensive system of family support, parent education, teacher-parent partnerships, and volunteer and resource development at the neighborhood, school, grade, and classroom or family levels.
The legislature also finds that the parent-community networking centers serve to create supportive partnerships among the home, school, and community for the purposes of improving student achievement and building a sense of family.
(b) The goals of the centers are to:
(1) Assist parents to provide appropriate home support for their children's development and achievement of Hawaii content and performance standards;
(2) Create a sense of community at the school level, instill positive attitudinal changes among teachers and parents and increase parent involvement at school and at home;
(3) Strengthen teacher-parent partnerships at the grade and classroom or family levels;
(4) Ease the transition of new families from pre-kindergarten to kindergarten, elementary to middle school, middle to high school, and from high school to higher education, the world of work, or other value added roles in the community and family;
(5) Help facilitate family focus groups to unify family support efforts of the school;
(6) Coordinate or give parent education workshops based on Hawaii's standards for parents as partners and assessments of parent and teacher concerns and strengths; and
(7) Help schools to communicate parental options for services as specified under "No Child Left Behind".
(c) There are four phases of development for a center. In phases I and II, evaluative reports indicate the centers:
(1) Facilitated a sense of community among parents, teachers, and community;
(2) Increased the numbers of parents involved in the education of Hawaii's youth;
(3) Returned the investment in centers 4.45 times the amount of resources and services expended on them, making the centers one of the most cost-effective programs in the department of education; and
(4) Revealed satisfying teacher-parent partnerships at the elementary school grade and classroom levels and higher student achievement in each of the pilot demonstration sites having at least two years of center phases III-IV funding. These schools attained the adequate yearly progress status or are in good standing towards achieving that status.
(d) Therefore, another purpose of this measure is to fund ten more elementary schools at phases III and IV. In addition, the legislature will also fund seven middle schools and seven high schools to pilot phases III and IV with $12,500 each. The centers will focus on grade level parent partnerships, involvement, and education or invention of new infrastructures combining the wisdom of principals, counselors, guidance instructors, student activities coordinators, parent facilitators, parents, and other school and community members of a school's family focus groups.
SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $2,288,900, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to establish new parent-community networking centers and to further develop all the centers. The revenues appropriated shall be expended as follows:
(1) $483,000 to fund one hundred sixty-one schools, allocating $3,000 for supplies, equipment, and telephones;
(2) $191,400 to fund twenty-two schools that are currently funded at $6,800 per year with an additional $8,700 to bring them up to the basic funding level of $15,500 to implement and sustain center phases I and II;
(3) $1,069,500 to establish a center in each of sixty-nine schools, allocating $15,500 to each school;
(4) $125,000 to fund ten more elementary schools for phases III and IV at $12,500 each;
(5) $175,000 to fund and pilot centers for seven middle schools and seven high schools for advanced phases III and IV, allocating $12,500 for each;
(6) $90,000 to restore two full-time resource teacher positions, one to focus on providing technical and support services to the middle schools and the other to focus on high schools;
(7) $105,000 to help establish three full-time classified civil service parent-community networking center assistants to develop a network of peer parent educators and volunteers to strengthen families as critical support systems for their children's achievement of the standards based on Hawaii's standards for parents as partners in learning; and
(8) $50,000 to develop research tools, collect data, and analyze the effectiveness of center programs to improve and inform decision-making and for continuous monitoring and improvement of parent and community involvement practices for student achievement.
SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of accounting and general services for the purposes of this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.
INTRODUCED BY: |
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