Hawaii-2023-HB244-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that career and technical education programs equip students with the skills necessary for in-demand jobs in the modern labor market. By linking education with real-world activities, such programs emphasize innovation in high-growth industries and provide students with opportunities to explore career pathways. Career and technical education fields of study include animation, graphic design, clinical health, engineering, marketing, environmental resource management, and education, and may provide students with the knowledge needed to perform twenty-first century jobs, such as urban growers; chief sustainability officers; hydrologists; digital animation designers; medical and healthcare professionals; regenerative agricultural specialists; software engineers; and teachers.

The purpose of this Act is to establish a working group to strengthen career and technical education in Hawaii's public school system.

SECTION 2. (a) There is established a career and technical education working group within the department of education for administrative purposes.

(b) The working group shall:

(1) Propose actions that the department of education may take to maintain a career and technical education program that prepares students for careers in current or emerging occupations and empowers students to meet the social, economic, and environmental challenges facing Hawaii;

(2) Evaluate the extent to which the department of education's current career and technical education programs equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in the twenty-first century workforce, particularly with regards to industries that advance the State's goals of economic diversification and transitioning to a clean energy economy;

(3) Recommend ways of expanding career and technical education programs that allow students participating in a career and technical education program to complete up to twelve credits of the student's graduation requirements through career and technical education courses;

(4) Examine processes for providing secondary school students participating in career and technical education programs with for-credit internship or apprenticeship opportunities that result in professional certification or licensure;

(5) Assess the potential benefits of offering grade nine students the opportunity to earn credit in a course that describes and explains the school's career and technical education programs;

(6) Determine the number of teachers currently providing instruction in career and technical education and the number of career and technical education teachers who are certified or licensed in the career pathway for which they are responsible for delivering instruction;

(7) Analyze methods of strengthening the career and technical education teaching workforce, including by offering sabbaticals to public school teachers to receive career pathway training, providing incentives to encourage graduates of career and technical education programs to become public school teachers, and allowing teacher to co-teach career and technical education courses with licensed industry professionals and subject matter specialists;

(8) Evaluate the number of classrooms that are currently dedicated to career and technical education at each secondary school and the cost of capital improvements that may be necessary to expand access to career and technical education programs; and

(9) Perform an analysis of high-performing career and technical education programs in Massachusetts and other states that highlight opportunities for, and costs of, incorporating components of high-performing models into Hawaii's career and technical education programming, including personnel and capital improvements needed to implement those models.

(1) The superintendent of education, who shall serve as chairperson of the working group;

(2) The director of the department of labor;

(3) The chairperson of the board of education;

(4) The executive director of Hawaii P-20;

(5) The chairpersons of the education standing committees of the senate and house of representatives;

(6) A representative from collective bargaining unit (5);

(7) A representative from collective bargaining unit (6);

(8) A public school principal, to be invited by the superintendent of education;

(9) Two public school teachers, to be selected by the representative from collective bargaining unit (5); and

(10) Other interested parties with experience in career and technical education that the chairperson deems relevant to the purposes of the working group, as invited by the chairperson.

(d) The members of the working group shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for expenses, including travel expenses, necessary for the performance of their duties. No member of the working group shall be subject to chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes, solely because of the member's participation in the working group.

(e) The working group shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2024.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $25,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2023-2024 for costs associated with the working group established by section 2 of this Act.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2023.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	244
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII