HB 1825 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO THE HAWAII TEACHER STANDARDS BOARD.

Summary

Permits the Department of Education and charter schools to hire unlicensed individuals as teachers on an emergency basis for five, rather than three, years. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Feb 2026

House Passage

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 22, 2026 Last action Feb 20, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB1825_HD1 → HB1825_HD2 · 3 edits

MINOR

This bill extends the emergency hiring period for unlicensed teachers from three years to five years for both the Department of Education and charter schools. The change aims to prevent high-performing teachers from being forced out before they can complete their licensure requirements. Additionally, the bill removes a requirement for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board to adopt specific rules to facilitate this hiring, simplifying the administrative process.

Scope change

The scope of the emergency hiring provision was expanded to allow a longer duration of employment (five years instead of three) for unlicensed individuals.

TIMELINE

The maximum duration for employing unlicensed individuals on an emergency basis was increased from three years to five years.

REQUIREMENT

The requirement for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board to adopt specific rules to facilitate emergency hiring was removed.

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting changes were made to the bill header, including updating the House District number from HD1 to HD2 and adjusting metadata dates.

Floor votes

How they voted

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

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 20, 2026

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on CPC as amended in HD 2 with Representative(s) Perruso voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Quinlan excused (1).

lower

Feb 20, 2026

Committee

Reported from LAB (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 636-26) as amended in HD 2, recommending referral to CPC.

lower

Feb 17, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on LAB recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 6 Ayes: Representative(s) Sayama, Lee, M., Garrett, Kapela, Kong, Reyes Oda; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Feb 9, 2026

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 78-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to LAB.

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, Souza; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Muraoka; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 26, 2026

Committee

Referred to EDN, LAB, CPC, referral sheet 1

lower

Jan 23, 2026

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 22, 2026

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors