Report Title:

DOE; Parent-Community Networking Center Programs

Description:

Appropriates funds for the establishment of new parent-community networking centers and for the further development of existing centers.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2616

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to parent-community networking centers.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that according to the National Commission for Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), 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/family levels.

The legislature also finds that the parent-community networking centers (PCNC) serve to create supportive partnerships among the home, school, and community for the purposes of improving student achievement and building a sense of family among all.

The goals of PCNC 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 home;

(3) Strengthen teacher-parent partnerships at the grade/classroom-family levels;

(4) Ease the transition of new families from pre-K 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 and give parent education workshops based on 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."

There are four phases of PCNC development. Evaluative reports indicate that parent community networking centers (PCNC) in phases I and II:

(1) Facilitated a sense of community among parents, teachers, and community;

(2) Increased numbers of parents involved in the education of Hawaii’s youth;

(3) Returned the investment in PCNCs 4.45 times the amount of resources and services expended on them, making PCNCs 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 PCNC phases III-IV funding. These schools attained the adequate yearly progress status or are in good standing towards achieving that status.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funding for ten more elementary schools at phases III and IV, as well as seven middle schools and seven high schools at pilot phases III and IV with $12,500 each. The PCNC shall focus on grade level parent partnerships, involvement, and education or establish infrastructures combining the wisdom of principals, counselors, guidance instructors, student activities coordinators, parent facilitators, parents, and other school and community members of the 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, for parent-community networking centers, to be expended as follows:.

(1) $483,000 to fund one hundred sixty-one schools with $3,000 each 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 PCNC, phases I and II;

(3) $1,069,500 to establish a PCNC in sixty-nine schools at the rate of $15,500 per school;

(4) $125,000 to fund ten additional elementary schools for phases III-IV at $12,500 each;

(5) $175,000 to fund and pilot seven middle schools and seven high schools for advanced phases III and IV at $12,500 each;

(6) $90,000 to restore two full-time resource teacher positions, one to focus on support services to the middle schools, and the other to focus on the high schools;

(7) $105,000 to help establish three full-time classified civil service PCNC 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 PCNC programs to improve and inform decision-making and continuous monitoring and improvement of parent and community involvement practices for student achievement.

SECTION 3. The sums 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.

INTRODUCED BY:

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