SB 2586 Summary

• Establishes "whole child education" requirement for all public elementary schools (allocating specified percentage of student hours) and middle/intermediate schools to include visual arts, music, theatre, dance, Hawaiian studies, Hawaiian language, and physical education beginning 2017-2018 school year.

• Provides special education teachers with 40 additional hours annually for individualized education program completion and $1,690 annual reimbursement for instructional materials; appropriates $3,726,450 for fiscal year 2016-2017.

• Requires all public high schools to offer vocational, technical, and career pathway programs by 2020-2021 school year, allowing students to complete up to 50% of graduation requirements in these courses; provides $1,500 annual reimbursement to vocational teachers for instructional materials.

• Mandates air conditioning in all public school classrooms reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit by 2021-2022 school year using energy-efficient technologies; authorizes general obligation bonds and appropriates funds for pilot projects.

• Limits public school students to three testing days annually, prohibits standardized test scores from being used to evaluate teachers or rate schools, and requires the board to notify families of the right to opt-out of standardized testing.

• Reduces public elementary class sizes to maximum 20 students and secondary classes to 26 students by 2020-2021 school year, with special provisions for self-contained and inclusion classes; increases general excise tax by one percent to fund education programs.