The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday deferred a bill that would have strengthened protections against the harassment of school workers after the Hawaii Department of Education proposed creating a code of conduct for families instead.

House Bill 1651 required the DOE to report incidents involving physical threats to law enforcement within 48 hours, provide paid time off to employees who needed to attend court hearings involving their harassment claims and hire a full-time worker to document and track harassment reports. 

In written testimony supporting the bill, some teachers argued that DOE’s current policies around harassment are not enough to keep workers safe. 

At Wednesday’s hearing, Superintendent Keith Hayashi said DOE will work with the Attorney General’s Office to develop a code of conduct governing appropriate family behavior in school settings. DOE and the AG’s office are still determining if the code would also define consequences for families who behave inappropriately, Hayashi added. 

Attorney General Anne Lopez did not provide a timeline for when the code of conduct would be completed but said her office and DOE will work together to develop the code as quickly as possible. 

“You have my commitment, and my deputies’ commitment, to work on this collaboratively and get it done,” Lopez said. 

Some senators and advocates expressed skepticism about DOE’s plan. 

Sen. Tim Richards said he supports a code of conduct but questioned DOE’s current response to threats against its employees. While administrators can meet with parents or call the police to their campuses, Richards said, the department needs to have clear, standardized policies when it comes to dealing with inappropriate behavior from families. 

“Some of the testimony on this bill has bothered me,” Richards said. “I see bullying going on, I see threatening going on, and I take great offense to all that.” 

Lindsay Chambers, a former DOE employee who reported multiple incidents of harassment between 2019 and 2021, said the department’s plan for a code of conduct lacked detail and provided no protections to employees. Chambers, along with two DOE teachers, drafted HB 1651’s language. 

“Instead of addressing the long-standing failure of the DOE to support its employees, this vague proposal does nothing to assist DOE employees who are being continually subjected to bullying and harassment,” Chambers said in an emailed statement after the hearing. 

But finding a solution through legislation can be challenging, Lopez said. DOE can currently ban parents from entering school campuses for a year, she added, but families still need to be able to contact schools about their children’s education.

“We really need to work as a state to figure out where boundaries are,” she said. 

HB 1651 marks the second unsuccessful attempt to clarify and regulate DOE’s response to employee harassment claims. A similar bill was introduced in 2022 but included an additional provision making the harassment of an educational worker a misdemeanor. 

The 2022 bill received strong opposition from families, who said the proposed legislation would discourage parents from advocating for their children’s academic needs and participating in the public education system. 

“This is a really hard situation,” Lopez said. 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.