House Committee on Education advances package of education bills; lawmaker questions HECO role in power‑outage study

The House Committee on Education met Feb. 1 in Conference Room 309 and advanced a package of education bills, voting to pass measures on medication administration in schools, public safety power shutoff planning, a pilot to expand certified school librarians, civil‑rights compliance staffing and other items; several bills were deferred for further discussion.

The committee’s action affects a broad set of policies the Department of Education (DOE) and partner agencies said would affect school operations, student services and facilities planning. Committee members spent the longest portion of debate questioning Hawaiian Electric about a bill that would fund a DOE study on how to keep schools open during Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), and heard testimony about FAFSA completion rates, Title IX enforcement and an asset‑management database for school capital projects.

The most immediate outcomes were votes to advance bills with committee amendments. House Bill 14‑99, which authorizes trained staff and volunteers to administer specified medications in schools, was passed with amendments. The committee also approved House Bill 9‑02, directing a study and planning for DOE operations during PSPS events, with the text amended to replace a company‑specific reference with a utilitywide term and to defer the effective date. Measures to pilot certified school librarians (HB 961 and HB 962), to add staff to the DOE Civil Rights Compliance Branch (HB 730), to support community schools (HB 754), to add DOE representation to the School Facilities Authority board (HB 1069), and to create an asset‑management/CIP planning tool (HB 3636) were all recommended to pass with committee amendments or HD1 language. Two bills — HB 1200 (codifying teacher ratios) and HB 1344 (mandatory FAFSA completion) — were deferred for further consideration.

Public comment and agency witnesses framed much of the committee’s discussion. Jysa Phelps, a University of Hawaii junior, testified in favor of HB 1344, citing a federal Pell‑grant estimate she said was unclaimed and a decline in FAFSA completion: “only approximately 40 percent of Hawaii’s class of 2024 completed the FAFSA,” she said. Steven Schatz of Hawaii P‑20 described coordination between DOE and P‑20, including a FAFSA tracker integrated into DOE data, a staffed FAFSA hotline and virtual and in‑person outreach events to help families complete forms.

The PSPS debate around HB 9‑02 drew sustained questioning from committee members about who should pay for studies and mitigation measures for schools. James Abraham, testifying for Hawaiian Electric, said the company’s PSPS program — set up in mid‑2024 — “has not de‑energized any customers through that program yet” and that the utility published a wildfire safety strategy that is under review by the Public Utilities Commission. Abraham said the utility is coordinating outreach and considering community resource centers for extended outages, and supported the committee’s amendment to broaden statutory language so the bill would apply to all electric utilities rather than naming a single company.

Several legislators pressed Hawaiian Electric on cost sharing. One representative asked why taxpayers should fund a study to keep schools open if the utility might be the source of preemptive outages; another asked whether the utility could perform the study for DOE. Hawaiian Electric’s representatives said wildfire mitigation is a “whole‑of‑society” issue and that the utility is taking steps to reduce ignition risk while supporting community outreach; they described investments and filings with regulators but did not commit to funding the DOE study themselves.

On civil‑rights enforcement, the committee heard from Beth Schimmelfenink, director of the DOE Civil Rights Compliance Branch, who explained that a January federal court decision vacating the department’s 2024 Title IX regulations has reverted the DOE to the 2020 regulations and increased investigative workload. The bill to add a gender equity specialist and additional equity specialists, HB 730, was supported in part because the CRCB reported handling roughly 400 cases per year and expects the reverted rules to lengthen investigations.

Advocates and educators spoke in support of expanding certified librarians. Sarah Melian del Laffin of HSTA said only about 29 percent of DOE schools have certified librarians on site and argued certified librarians help with literacy, research skills and misinformation. The committee approved a pilot to staff libraries with certified librarians in selected complex areas.

On capital projects and facilities, the School Facilities Authority testified in support of HB 3636, describing the bill as an attempt to create a legislative‑centric asset database so lawmakers and the public can see school asset inventories, condition ratings and utilization metrics across districts to guide repairs and prioritization. SFA Director Ricky Fujitani and SFA witnesses said the information currently exists in multiple “pockets” and would require funding to aggregate into an asset‑management system.

Several witnesses and testifiers addressed Title IX and gender equity in schools. A plaintiff in a class‑action Title IX suit, Ashley Badis, described facility and program gaps she experienced as a female student athlete and said HB 730 would help provide statewide capacity to address such complaints.

The committee also took up technical and housekeeping items: HB 987 (procurement automation fund alignment) was reported out with amendments; HB 901 (an additional appeals process for charter schools) was continued for further discussion but the committee adopted language moving that discussion forward; and HB 904 (streamlining duplicate Board of Education reporting on charter schools) was passed with amendments to make the preamble reflect the BOE’s view that the reports are duplicative.

Looking ahead, the committee’s actions send a set of bills to subsequent floor or committee processes with HD1 amendments and deferred effective dates in several measures; a handful of bills were set aside for additional work. Lawmakers said they will continue to press utilities and agencies for funding answers and implementation details as the measures move forward.

Ending note: the meeting included extensive testimony from DOE, the Public Utilities Commission, Hawaiian Electric, the Department of Health, University of Hawaii representatives, teacher‑union advocates and parent/student advocates; several bills will require follow‑up to confirm funding and implementation details before becoming law.