Hawaii

IDEA Money Watch has obtained the information submitted by the Hawaii Dept. of Education to the U.S. Dept. of Education regarding reduction to local spending (maintenance of effort or  MOE) and use of federal IDEA funds for Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) for each school district for the 2009 fiscal year. Get Hawaii information here. (PDF,  3 pgs).

NOTE: The information submitted by Hawaii for its 2009 allotment of federal funds for IDEA Section 611 does not appear to reflect Recovery Act funds. We are investigating this issue.

This information is important because it indicates if school districts reduced local spending in light of IDEA Recovery Act funds in FY 2009. IDEA does not require that local districts replace these funds when the Recovery funds run out, putting services for students with disabilities at risk.

From the Honolulu Advertiser:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed a ruling that protects Hawaii’s teacher furlough program against a federal legal challenge by a group of special education students and their parents.

In its 20-page decision, the Court of Appeals said: “To allow the stay-put provisions to apply in this instance would be essentially to give the parents of disabled children veto power over a state’s decision regarding the management of its schools.

“The (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) did not intend to strip administrative powers away from local school boards and give them to parents of individual children, and we do not read it as doing so.”

Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima originally ruled in November that while special education students might suffer “irreparable harm” because of teacher furloughs, ordering schools to reopen would cause more harm than good to the overall public interest.

The request for an injunction against furlough Fridays was brought on behalf of seven families with special education students at five schools.

Lawyers for the group argued that the furloughs violated Individual Education Plans for disabled students.

IEPs are federally mandated agreements between parents of special needs students and the state. The contracts are drawn up on an individual basis for about 17,000 special education students and typically specify the number of hours a student should receive of therapeutic services, such as speech therapy, skills training, occupational therapy of counseling.

January 1, 2010

Superintendent’s term resulted in higher test scores, BOE support

By Loren Moreno
Advertiser Staff Writer

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto, who resigned yesterday, enjoyed strong support from the state Board of Education, with her original four-year contract renewed twice.

Hamamoto inherited the public school system in 2001 just as the state and the rest of the nation were subjected to the unprecedented federal mandates of No Child Left Behind.

Her success in raising test scores gained her the respect of many educators and meant she likely could have kept her job beyond the end of her current term, which was 10 months away.

Board member Donna Ikeda said there was no reason to believe her contract would not have been renewed if she had chosen to seek a longer term.

“She’s probably one of the longest serving superintendents, and for good reason,” Ikeda said. “She’s always been for the kids, from the first time I met her, the kids always came first. She’s done a very good job.”

Under her leadership, student test scores under NCLB testing have drastically increased in the core subject areas of both reading and math, though the majority of Hawai’i schools are beginning to miss federal targets as expectations increase toward the 2014 deadline when all students will be required to show proficiency.

About 65 percent of public school students were proficient in reading last year. That compares with 39 percent when testing began in 2002. Likewise, 44 percent of students demonstrated proficiency in math, compared with 19 percent in 2002.

“She was saddled with the requirements of No Child Left Behind right in her first year. We are where we are today thanks to her leadership,” Ikeda said.

Hamamoto always considered herself an educator first, Ikeda said, but it can be said that she embraced the political nature of her job in 2004 in her unprecedented speech before a joint session of the state House and Senate. The speech came just two days after Gov. Linda Lingle delivered her State of the State address outlining her plans for education reform.

Hamamoto’s speech set the stage for the state’s reform of the public school system known as the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, or Act 51. The legislation changed the way the DOE handled its budget, giving individual school principals control over an increased portion of their campus’ money. It mandated a unified calendar for all public schools, reduced class sizes, and required the DOE to take over services previously handled by other state agencies, such as bus service and the construction process, reducing the time it takes for schools to see repairs, maintenance and new construction.

While Hamamoto had unwavering support from the state Board of Education, her department often butted heads with Lingle’s administration, most notably over issues such as the proposal to establish seven school boards across the state as opposed to one, funding teacher drug testing, and even the current furloughs of public school teachers.

Most recently, Lingle claimed there was a lack of accountability in the public school system, and proposed a constitutional amendment for the upcoming session to make the DOE a Cabinet-level department, under the governor’s control.

In June, Lingle cut the Department of Education budget by 13.85 percent, or $270.3 million, over two years. When budget cuts from the state Legislature were added, the $1.8 billion public school budget was cut by $468 million.

Those cuts prompted negotiations with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which resulted in a two-year contract that included 17 furlough days a year.

Since that contract was announced, Hamamoto and the state administration had been working together to reduce the number of furlough days, first by allowing schools to reassign a limited number of planning days as instruction days, and then through a combination of using money from the state’s rainy-day fund and reassigning planning days.

Garrett Toguchi, chairman of the state Board of Education, said he could not point to any one reason why the superintendent decided to end her time in the DOE before her contract expired. He said she was frustrated by the furlough situation, but it was not the reason she cited for leaving.

“She has been around for a long time and faced a lot of difficult times as superintendent,” he said. “She said it was just time for her to take a break, for other people to take over.”

HawaiiAdvertiser.com
Thursday, October 22, 2009

A pair of federal lawsuits filed on behalf of special education and other students have the potential to keep some public schools open tomorrow despite the state’s plan to furlough teachers on 17 Fridays, attorneys for the plaintiffs said yesterday.
The attorneys for nine families of special education students on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island who want their children in school and around their classmates for the “furlough Fridays” hope to get a hearing today before Judge David Ezra in U.S. District Court seeking a temporary injunction.


The lawsuit alleges that the furloughs imposed on schools by the Department of Education constitute an unlawful unilateral change in the programs and services that special-needs children receive. Full article is here.

US Education Secretary took the state to task in an op-ed that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser. In the column, Duncan wrote that while the state’s students have been making “steady gains” in their academic achievement, cutting the school calendar to save money was a “step in the wrong direction. It’s inconceivable to me that this is the best solution for Hawaii.” He also said he will work with the state’s Congressional delegation to help in some way, but the only place the problem can be resolved is in Hawaii by local and state leaders.

Aloha! Hawaii will receive $39,925,269 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to improve special education services to its 17,964 school-aged students with disabilities.

We will report on how Hawaii is using these additional funds and how the academic achievement of students with disabilities is improving as a result.

Please share your comments and experiences.