HB 2012 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO COMMUNITY LITERACY LABS.

HB 2012 proposes a two-year pilot program to establish community literacy labs, funded by the Department of Education. The program would directly support adults in underserved communities by providing accessible literacy resources and training. Key provisions include appropriating state funds for implementation, with the Department of Education responsible for selecting pilot sites and managing the program over the two-year period. The bill is currently pending committee approval after receiving a favorable recommendation.

Bill status passed both 4 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Mar 2026

Governor

Introduced Jan 23, 2026 Last action Mar 30, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB2012_HD1 → HB2012_SD1 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was updated from a House Draft to a Senate Draft, primarily changing the effective date from July 1, 3000, to July 31, 2055, and correcting a typo in the program name from 'lab' to 'labs'. The Senate version also reorganized the section on community literacy labs to clarify that participation is voluntary and free for families, while adding a requirement for the Department of Education to submit interim and final reports to the legislature.

Scope change

The bill's scope regarding the pilot program's name was clarified to include 'labs' (plural), and the timeline was adjusted to a future date in 2055.

TIMELINE

The effective date of the Act was changed from July 1, 3000, to July 31, 2055.

DEFINITION

The program name was corrected from 'community literacy lab' to 'community literacy labs'.

REQUIREMENT

A new subsection (f) explicitly states that participation in the pilot program must be voluntary and provided at no cost to students and families.

Subsection (g) was renumbered and expanded to require the Department of Education to submit an interim report before the 2027 session and a final report determining if the program should become permanent.

TECHNICAL

Subsection (h) was renumbered to (h) after the new subsections were inserted.

Minor formatting adjustments were made to the legislative findings and funding appropriation sections.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 30, 2026

Upper · Passed

Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.

upper

Mar 30, 2026

Committee

Reported from EDU (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 3269) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Mar 20, 2026

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on EDU recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in EDU were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Kim, Hashimoto, DeCorte; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 2 Excused: Senator(s) Kidani, Fukunaga.

upper

Mar 17, 2026

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on EDU has scheduled a public hearing on 03-20-26 1:00PM; Conference Room 229 & Videoconference.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Committee

Referred to EDU, WAM.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Introduced

Received from House (Hse. Com. No. 175).

upper

Mar 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Perruso, Sayama excused (2). Transmitted to Senate.

lower

Mar 4, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on FIN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 16 Ayes: Representative(s) Todd, Takenouchi, Hartsfield, Hussey, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Kitagawa, Kusch, Lee, M., Miyake, Morikawa, Perruso, Templo, Yamashita, Alcos, Gedeon, Reyes Oda; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Feb 18, 2026

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0).

lower

Feb 18, 2026

Committee

Reported from HSH (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 369-26), recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 12, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on HSH recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 8 Ayes: Representative(s) Marten, Olds, Amato, Hartsfield, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Takayama, Alcos, Garcia; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Takenouchi.

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 25-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to HSH.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on EDN recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 10 Ayes: Representative(s) Woodson, La Chica, Amato, Evslin, Garrett, Kapela, Kila, Olds, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 28, 2026

Committee

Referred to EDN, HSH, FIN, referral sheet 3

lower

Jan 26, 2026

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 23, 2026

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

16 primary · 0 co-sponsors