Bill Text: HI SR138 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging Law Enforcement Agencies To Monitor Parks And Other Areas Near Schools During School Hours To Detect Individuals Who May Be Students, And To Enforce The State Truancy Law.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-10 - Referred to PSM. [SR138 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2020-SR138-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	138
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

Urging law enforcement agencies to monitor parks and other areas near schools during school hours to detect individuals who may be students, and to enforce the state truancy law.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, section 302A-1132, Hawaii Revised Statutes, commonly known as the State's truancy law, generally requires that children five to eighteen years of age attend school; and

 

     WHEREAS, truancy is one of the warning signs that a student may be headed for delinquent activity, social isolation, or educational failure due to dropping out of school; and

 

     WHEREAS, the lack of commitment to school is a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school; and

 

     WHEREAS, those who do not graduate from high school utilize more government-funded social services than high school graduates, with the average high school dropout costing the government more than $200,000 over the course of a lifetime; and

 

     WHEREAS, in response to Senate Concurrent Resolution 74, Senate Draft 1, Regular Session of 2009, the Department of Education convened a Working Group on Truancy Rate Reduction to develop guidelines to reduce the truancy rate in public schools; and

 

     WHEREAS, one of the recommendations made by the Working Group on Truancy Rate Reduction was to collaborate with law enforcement; and

 

     WHEREAS, while section 302A-1136, Hawaii Revised Statutes, vests enforcement of the State's truancy law with the Department of Education, that section does not also relieve the chiefs of police from enforcement of the same laws; and

 

WHEREAS, students have been observed loitering in parks near schools and law enforcement agencies have not been actively collaborating with schools to vigorously enforce the State's truancy law; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2020, that law enforcement agencies are urged to monitor parks and other areas near schools during school hours to detect individuals who may be students, and to enforce the state truancy law; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Superintendent of Education and chiefs of police of each county.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Truancy; Police; Enforcement; Parks