Aloha HE'E Members and Participants,

Legislative News

Family School Leave

HE'E is urging action!  One of HE'Es priorities on legislation, SB562 SD1 on Family School Leave, has not been scheduled for hearing before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.  It's important that this bill is heard by the committee by Friday or it will not move ahead in the legislative process. The amended version of the bill recommends the Legislative Reference Bureau conduct a study on family school leave that studies the feasibility and potential impact of requiring employers to allow parents and guardians to take leave from their employment to participate in their children's school activities. An article about this bill was posted in the Honolulu Star Advertiser on February 24, 2013, entitled "Bill Seeks Time Off for School Activities." 

Please see the letter from the Coalition to the Ways and Means Committee here. Please Email the Senate Ways and Means Committee and urge them to have a hearing on this bill. We feel it is very important to continue the conversation. Please contact me if you should have questions or comments at cheri@heecoalition.org today.  We will submit to committee first thing tomorrow morning. 

Early Learning

In response to the Be My Voice request to ask for a hearing for early learning measures, please see HE'E's request letter here, which requests a hearing for the two bills the Coalition supported, HB862 and HB864. Please let me know if you have comments at cheri@heecoalition.org today. We will submit to committee first thing tomorrow morning.  

Instructional Hours

A few members are working on in instructional hours issue (SB238/HB60), and have met with the DOE to discuss the definition of instructional time and the status of implementing the minimum hours at the secondary level. The DOE has suggested that we look at an example of a master schedule at a high school. Therefore, HE'E has made a request to the Kailua High School registrar for a copy of the schedule. The HE'E request to the registrar is here. We will continue the discussion and give an update of the status at the next planning meeting.