Senate passes bill changing
kindergarten age

---

By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Some children could end up falling through the early-education crack under a bill intended to delay the start of kindergarten in the public schools by a year for children with birthdays late in the year.

That was the criticism lodged by one senator who spoke against Senate bill 2032 on the Senate floor yesterday.

"I think, though, that there's another segment of the community that we also need to pay attention to, which is those children who will not enter kindergarten and who will not be entering preschool either and, for lack of not having an opportunity for other educational opportunities, really stay at home for a year," Sen. Brian Kanno (D, Makakilo) said.

The bill, which gained approval, was the final one voted on by the Senate before yesterday's deadline to send bills to the House.

Kanno, who was the only one to oppose the bill, said he was pleased that the bill was amended to allow parents to have their children born later in the year to undergo an assessment to determine if they would be ready for school.

Currently, children must be 5 years old by Dec. 31 to attend kindergarten in the current year. The bill requires children born after Sept. 30 to start school the following year beginning with the 2005-2006 school year.

But Senate Education Chairman Norman Sakamoto (D, Moanalua-Salt Lake), the bill's author, said the measure is now "garbled" because of recent amendments to the bill. He intended to require children born after July 1 to start the following year. He said the bill still needs work and discussions with educators are continuing.

But Kanno said he hopes the bill would go further by guaranteeing space in a preschool for children who could not attend kindergarten because of their birth date. And, if no preschool was available, then allow the child into kindergarten.

"I think this would be a better situation than having that child sit at home for a year with no opportunity for preschool, no opportunity for an educational program," Kanno said.

But Sen. Bob Hogue (R, Kailua), who voted in favor of the bill, said that having a child prepared to begin school is a good educational start.

"If you come into a school system behind, immature, you will stay behind for many, many years. So I think maturity is a strong key here and a key factor for the reason for this bill," Hogue said. "Allowing children to stay at home for another year and mature, get this added involvement with their parents, is a very, very good opportunity."

---

Legislature Directory

Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes

Testimony by email: testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov
Include in the email the committee name; bill number;
date, time and place of the hearing; and number of copies
(as listed on the hearing notice.) For more information,
see http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/par
or call 587-0478.