STAND. COM. REP. NO. 968

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1349

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Education and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1349, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHER TENURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the probationary period that licensed charter school teachers, who are not yet tenured in the Department of Education, must serve upon entering or returning to the Department of Education, thereby aligning the probationary requirements of all Department of Education teachers, regardless of their teaching experience in a public charter school.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission and Hawaii State Teachers Association.

     Your Committees find that this measure aligns probationary requirements for all Department of Education teachers regardless of employment history.  It amends current law which allows a licensed charter school teacher who enters or returns to the Department of Education to gain tenure after only one year of service, while licensed Department of Education teachers must serve three years of probation prior to earning tenure.  The three-year probationary period grants principals ample time to observe and support new Department of Education teachers before awarding tenure.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2015.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1349, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1349, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair