House Bill 14: Mandatory Kindergarten, Lowering Compulsory School Attendance Age to 5
From Home School Legal Defense Fund, February 25, 2014
- Sponsors: Representative Thielen
- Summary: House Bill 14 would require a child who turns 5 years old by August 1 to attend kindergarten. Although the bill description states the homeschooled children are exempt from the requirement, homeschool families would have to file their notice of intent when their child turns 5.
- HSLDA's Position: Oppose.
- HSLDA is opposed to lowering the compulsory attendance age.
- Action Requested: None at this time
Status:
- 01/17/2013 House Introduced and passed first reading
- 01/18/2013 House Referred to House Education Committee and House Finance Committee
- 12/18/2013 House Carried over to 2014 Regular Session
- 01/31/2014 House Bill scheduled to be heard by House Education on Wednesday, 02-02-14 at 2 p.m. in the House Conference Room 309.
- 02/05/2014 House Education committee recommended that the bill be passed with amendments.
- 02/12/2014 House Reported from the Education Committee; Passed Second Reading as amended and referred to the committee on Finance.
- 02/18/2014 House Scheduled to be heard by House Finance on Friday, 2-21-2014 at 1:00 p.m. in the House Conference Room 308.
- 02/21/2014 House Scheduled to be heard by House Finance on Tuesday, 2-25-2014 at 11:00 a.m. in Conference Room 308.
- 02/25/2014 House The Committee on House Finance recommends the measure be passed, with amendments.
Background:
Lowering the compulsory attendance age from 6 to 5 would subject Hawaii home educators to the requirements of the homeschool statute one year earlier than now required. (You do not need to share this reason with your legislators.)
If Hawaii were to lower the compulsory school attendance age, it would join only eight other states that have their compulsory attendance age that low. Twenty-four states, including Hawaii, have their compulsory attendance age at 6. Sixteen states have it at 7 and two states wait until 8.
According to the 2005 NAEP test scores of children from states that have low compulsory school attendance ages (5–6) did not score any higher than children from the other states, and in some subjects their average was actually lower.
Many education experts have concluded that beginning a child's formal education too early may actually result in burnout and poor scholastic performance later.
Lowering the compulsory attendance age erodes the authority of parents who are in the best position to determine when their child's formal education should begin.
A report published February 6, 2007 by the Goldwater Institute examines Stanford 9 test scores and finds Arizona kindergarten programs initially improve learning but have no measurable impact on reading, math, or language arts test scores by fifth grade.
The data show that students in schools with all-day kindergarten programs have statistically significant higher 3rd-grade test scores, but there is no impact on 5th-grade scores. This finding is consistent with previous research. Forcing children into school early delivers short-term benefits at best.
Another significant impact of expanding the compulsory attendance age would be an inevitable tax increase to pay for more classroom space and teachers to accommodate the additional students compelled to attend public schools.
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