Sec. 2. Findings

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Section 7202 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 7512 ) is amended to read as follows: Congress finds the following: Native Hawaiians are a distinct and unique indigenous people with a historical continuity to the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian archipelago, whose society was organized as a nation and internationally recognized as a nation by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan, as evidenced by treaties governing friendship, commerce, and navigation.

The United States has recognized and reaffirmed that— Native Hawaiians have a cultural, historic, and land-based link to the indigenous people who exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands, and that group has never relinquished its claims to sovereignty or its sovereign lands; the United States furnishes services to Native Hawaiians because of their unique status as the indigenous people of a once sovereign nation with whom the United States has established a trust relationship;

Congress has also delegated broad authority to administer a portion of the Federal trust responsibility to the State of Hawaii; the political status of Native Hawaiians is comparable to that of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and the aboriginal, indigenous people of the United States have— a continuing right to autonomy in their internal affairs; and an ongoing right of self-determination and self-governance that has never been extinguished. The political relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian people has been recognized and reaffirmed by the United States, as evidenced by the inclusion of Native Hawaiians in— the Native American Programs Act of 1974 ( 42 U.S.C. 2991 et seq. );

Public Law 95–341 (commonly known as the ( American Indian Religious Freedom Act 42 U.S.C. 1996 )); the National Museum of the American Indian Act ( 20 U.S.C. 80q et seq. ); the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.); the National Historic Preservation Act ( 16 U.S.C. 470 et seq. ); the Native American Languages Act ( 25 U.S.C. 2901 et seq. ); the American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Culture and Art Development Act (20 U.S.C. 4401 et seq.); the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 ( 29 U.S.C. 2801 et seq. ); and the Older Americans Act of 1965 ( 42 U.S.C. 3001 et seq. ).

In 1993, 2005, and 2009, the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate released the findings of the Native Hawaiian Educational Assessment Project, which found that despite the successes of the programs established under title IV of the Augustus F. Hawkins-Robert T. Stafford Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Amendments of 1988, many of the same educational needs still existed for Native Hawaiians. Subsequent reports by the Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate and other organizations have generally confirmed those findings.

For example— Native Hawaiian students continue to begin their school experience lagging behind other students in terms of readiness factors such as vocabulary test scores; Native Hawaiian students continue to score below national norms on standardized education achievement tests at all grade levels; both public and private schools continue to show a pattern of lower percentages of Native Hawaiian students in the uppermost achievement levels and in gifted and talented programs;

Native Hawaiian students continue to be overrepresented among students qualifying for special education programs provided to students with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, emotional impairment, and other such disabilities; Native Hawaiians continue to be underrepresented in institutions of higher education and among adults who have completed 4 or more years of college; and Native Hawaiians continue to be disproportionately represented in many negative social and physical statistics indicative of special educational needs.

The number of Native Hawaiian students served by the State of Hawaii Department of Education has risen from 20 percent in 1980 to 26 percent in 2008, and there are, and will continue to be, geographically rural, isolated areas with a high Native Hawaiian population density. Despite the consequences of more than 100 years of nonindigenous influence, the Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territory and their cultural identity, in accordance with their own spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social institutions.

The State of Hawaii, in the constitution and statutes of the State of Hawaii— reaffirms and protects the unique right of the Native Hawaiian people to practice and perpetuate their culture and religious customs, beliefs, practices, and language; recognizes the traditional language of the Native Hawaiian people as an official language of the State of Hawaii, which may be used as the language of instruction for all subjects and grades in the public school system; and promotes the study of the Hawaiian culture, language, and history by providing a Hawaiian education program and using community expertise as a suitable and essential means to further the program. .

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