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HB 616 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO THE SAFETY OF EDUCATIONAL WORKERS.

Summary
Requires the Department of Education and public charter schools to take certain steps to report incidents of harassment and implement procedures for handling harassment of educational workers. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)
Issues: ✓ EducationSupports EducationMandates reporting and procedures to protect educational workers from harassment, strengthening workplace safety for teachers per bill's explicit focus on protection.95% confidence ✓ Labor & EmploymentSupports Labor & EmploymentMandates harassment reporting and safety procedures for educational workers, directly advancing workplace safety protections per bill subjects and summary.95% confidence
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
House Passage
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB616_HD1 → HB616_HD2 · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from HD1 to HD2 and updated with new administrative metadata. The core policy text regarding harassment protection for educational workers remains substantively identical, though minor formatting adjustments were made to the legal citations and sentence structures.
Scope change
The bill's scope and applicability remain unchanged; it continues to apply to educational workers in public charter schools and the Department of Education.
TECHNICAL

The bill title and version were updated from HB616 HD1 to HB616 HD2, reflecting a revision in the legislative process.

Administrative metadata, including author names, page numbers, and timestamps, were updated to reflect the new version.

Minor formatting changes were made to legal citations and sentence flows within the harassment protection sections, but the substantive legal requirements and definitions were not altered.

Floor votes

How they voted

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

Actions timeline

Total actions
12
Key actions
3
Committee
5
Feb 14, 2025
Lower · Passed
Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 2 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Cochran, Matayoshi, Poepoe, Ward excused (4).
lower
Feb 14, 2025
Committee
Reported from JHA (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 738) as amended in HD 2, recommending referral to FIN.
lower
Feb 11, 2025
Lower · Passed
The committee on JHA recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 9 Ayes: Representative(s) Tarnas, Poepoe, Belatti, Kahaloa, Perruso, Takayama, Todd, Garcia, Shimizu; Ayes with reservations: none; 0 Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Cochran, Hashem.
lower
Feb 5, 2025
Committee
Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 177) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to JHA.
lower
Jan 30, 2025
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, Kila, Olds, Sayama, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Kapela.
lower
Jan 21, 2025
Committee
Referred to EDN, JHA, FIN, referral sheet 2
lower
Jan 21, 2025
Introduced
Introduced and Pass First Reading.
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Introduced
Pending introduction.
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Justin Woodson
Justin Woodson
DDemocratic
HI
9