Bill Text: HI SB250 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Student Out-of-service-area Attendance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2023-12-11 - Carried over to 2024 Regular Session. [SB250 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2024-SB250-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
250 |
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THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to student out-of-service-area attendance.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
The legislature further finds that multi-tracking is an approach used to address school overcrowding by dividing students and faculty into multiple groups who attend school year-round on alternating schedules. However, multi-tracked schools have tested an average of two per cent lower than students in traditional schools on national reading, math, and language assessments. Studies have also shown that multi‑tracking is more expensive over the long term and can harm community and family cohesion and lead to increased stress and burnout for students, teachers, and parents.
The legislature believes that school overcrowding and the need for multi-tracking in the Kapolei complex has been partially caused by the mandatory reassignment of students who would otherwise attend a school in the Nanakuli complex. Assigning these students to schools in their own Nanakuli complex would help balance the distribution of students among the complex areas within the Leeward district and ease overcrowding in the Kapolei complex without the need to multi‑track.
The purpose of this Act is to gradually end the department of education's practice of mandating that students attend a school outside their service area.
SECTION 2. Section 302A-1143, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§302A-1143
Attending school in [what] a
service area. A person of school age
shall be required to attend the school of the service area, as determined by
the department, in which the person resides, unless:
(1) The person is enrolled in a Hawaiian language medium education program or charter school;
(2) A geographic exception to attend a school in another service area is requested and granted at the discretion of the department;
(3) Out-of-service-area attendance is
mandated by [the department or by] federal law; or
(4) The person is enrolled in a career and technical education program under section 302A-1143.5."
SECTION 3. The department of education shall reduce the out-of-service-area attendance mandated by the department of education as follows:
(1) For the 2024-2025 school year, the number of sixth grade students mandated by the department of education for out-of-service-area attendance shall not be more than eighty per cent of the sixth grade students mandated for out-of-service-area attendance during the 2022-2023 school year;
(2) For the 2025-2026 school year, the number of sixth grade students mandated by the department of education for out-of-service-area attendance shall not be more than sixty per cent of the sixth grade students mandated for out-of-service-area attendance during the 2022-2023 school year;
(3) For the 2026-2027 school year, the number of sixth grade students mandated by the department of education for out-of-service-area attendance shall not be more than forty per cent of the sixth grade students mandated for out-of-service-area attendance during the 2022-2023 school year; and
(4) For the 2027-2028 school year, the number of sixth grade students mandated by the department of education for out-of-service-area attendance shall not be more than twenty per cent of the sixth grade students mandated for out-of-service-area attendance during the 2022-2023 school year.
SECTION 4. No later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2030, the department of education shall submit a report to the legislature on its progress to comply with this Act. The report shall also include information, beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, on the number of students statewide in each grade that have been mandated by the department of education for out‑of-service-area attendance.
SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval; provided that section 2 shall take effect July 1, 2028.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
DOE; Out-Of-Service-Area Attendance; District Exemption; Geographic Exception; Report
Description:
Prohibits the Department of Education from mandating that any student attend a school outside the student's service area. Establishes a 5-year phaseout period. Requires the Department of Education to submit annual progress reports.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
