Report Title:

Families for Resources for Early Access to Learning; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds for the Families for Resources for Early Access to Learning Program (R.E.A.L.). (SD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2613

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR FAMILIES FOR RESOURCES FOR EARLY ACCESS TO LEARNING.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Parents are the young child's first and most significant teachers. Brain research reveals that the development of neural patterns that promote or inhibit learning throughout life are dependent on the person's environment and experiences in the early years, birth through age eight. Therefore one of the best approaches to a child's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development is to empower parents in their role of providing a caring and intellectually stimulating environment in the earliest years. Families for Resources for Early Access to Learning (R.E.A.L), based on Minnesota's statewide Early Childhood/Family Education Model, has done just that.

Families for R.E.A.L. is a public school early childhood/family education program for parents of children, ages birth to five, from all socioeconomic backgrounds. The program operates in trimesters, each consisting of nine weeks. Parents and children attend classes once a week for nine weeks on the weekday designated for their children's age group. Parents learn developmentally appropriate parenting/teaching skills regarding the very young. They network with each other and learn how to access community resources even after they leave the program. Their children learn social, physical, early literacy and numeric skills and most importantly gain a stronger and more confident teacher in their home.

Currently there are three program sites: Pearl City Highlands elementary school in the leeward district; Kapunahala elementary school in the windward district; and Wailuku Union Church in the Maui district. Each Families for R.E.A.L. site serves three hundred fifty to five hundred families or one thousand individuals (parent and child) per year. Kindergarten teachers consistently report that children who attend Families for R.E.A.L. come to school ready to learn. Parents report great satisfaction and happiness to know that their children have learned something new and wonderful for the day; and that they gain more self-confidence after each class knowing more about how to help their children and themselves. Not surprisingly, each site has a wait list of five hundred families, or one thousand parents and children. The legislature finds that the Families for R.E.A.L. program prepares both parents and children for a smooth transition into kindergarten and that parents remain actively involved in their children's elementary schools.

The legislature also finds that the state family support section of the department of education and the existing Families for R.E.A.L. site teams produced content and performance standards for parent participants of the program and shared their experiences with others in the early childhood/family field. In addition, thousands of parents have been sent to Families for R.E.A.L. by parent alumnae, educators, courts, and other health, social, and educational agencies. The legislature further finds that one center in each district is not enough in heavily populated districts or in districts where distance isolates families from easily accessing early childhood/family services. Therefore, the legislature intends to fund ten satellite sites to serve populations where the need and demand exist.

Professional development services to train staff and to establish new district and satellite sites will be provided by the family support section of the department of education and the existing staff of the three Families for R.E.A.L. sites. Other resource persons from the early childhood field and community will also be tapped.

The purpose of this Act is to make an appropriation to establish the program in the Honolulu, central, Kauai, and Hawaii districts so that parents in each school district have a full-fledged anchor site.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $         , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to fund and expand the Families for R.E.A.L. program to be expended as follows:

(1) $        to fund four additional Families for R.E.A.L. sites in the Honolulu, central, Kauai, and Hawaii school districts, at the cost of $       per site; and

(2) $        to fund ten part-time satellite sites at the cost of $       each.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.