Hawaii Public Schools

Are you thinking about coming to Hawaii and wondering where the best schools are? Are you interested in public schools information, rankings, and best places to live? Here is some information about the public schools, private schools and homeschooling in our area to help you with your search.

  • Special Needs info is at the bottom of this page, including registration, calendar, forms, links to school sites, etc.

Announcements

First day of public school is Aug 3, 2021

UPDATE FROM HAWAII Board of Education:
The Board of Education recently approved on July 15, 2021:

"to work with families who want their children in a distance learning program because (a) they do not feel comfortable sending their children to a school campus and would like to keep their children at home"

We should hopefully see something announced by Jul 29th about offering distance learning in complex-areas versus by school. Stay tuned. It's likely you would have to do a formal request to do distance learning.

Hawaii DOE FAQ's for Military families

Please follow my Hawaii Military Life FB page for more up to date info on Public school openings.

Beginning school year 20/21 (Fall 2020) there are additional vaccines required for childcare or preschool, kindergarten, seventh grade, and post-secondary school, and for students entering school in Hawaiʻi for the first time.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS associated with base boundaries.

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS
These schools also apply to children staying at the Schofield Inn, the following have been designated as temporary schools: 

Tripler Army Medical Center Housing
And for children staying at the Tripler Guest House:

Wheeler Army Air Station

Camp Smith Mañana housing

Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam (JBPHH) schools

Fort Shafter

Kaneohe Marine Corp Base schools

  • Mokapu Elementary (Only on base school) Grades K-6 but not all kids who live on base will go here. 808-254-7964

  • Aikahi Elementary Grades K-6 with links to the school, playground, military help, and library services. 808-254-7944

Grades K-6 Kainalu Elementary, Kailua Elementary
Grades 7-8. 808-263-1500 Kailua Intermediate 
Grades 9-12. 808-266-7900 Kailua High 
Grades 9-12. 808-254-7900 Kalaheo High 

Schools and school liaisons for Hawaii Military Bases

Schofield/Wheeler/Fort Shafter
The Army School Liaison Office Building 1283, 241 Hewitt Street Schofield Barracks, HI 96857. Email: schools@himwr.com. Phone: (808) 655-8326

JBPHH school liaison office is located at 30 Peltier Ave. Bldg. 1925, Honolulu, HI 96818 Phone: 808-306-9247 Email: nrhslo@navy.mil

Marines Kaneohe and Camp Smith school liaison is located at K-bay, Bldg 216 Room 14, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii
Phone: (808) 257-2019 email: SLP Coordinator

GETTING REGISTERED

If you have never attended Hawaii Public schools here is the info on How to enroll in Hawaii Public schools for the first time. Also contact your school to make an appointment if you want to walk in.

TIP: Note if you do the online registration you will need to have your DL, birth certificate and SIS-10W revised form scanned in to upload into the application. Ensure you have write down the code given to you when you sign up so you can get back into the application where you left off.

Here is the Hawaii Department of Education Health Form 14 that is the health form required for all entry into Hawaii public and private schools. This is what you would bring to your pediatrician to fill out. Private schools also use this form but customize it for their school so make sure to use the one from the specific school you will attend. 

For 7th graders a physical exam is required within one year of entry into public school. 

Bring to registration:

  • Enrollment form

  • Health Record Form 14, immunizations, and a tuberculosis exam

  • Student information update

  • Birth certificate

  • Proof of current address

  • Copy of most recent transcript from last school

  • If necessary, legal documents, other documents from previous school, special needs documentsHow did the Hawaii Public schools rankings fair? 

When choosing a school I suggest to use your own judgement, vice .com websites, and ask your sponsors or other military families what they think. Hawaii performance scores wasn't looking good at first but after talking to other families, it's really WHAT WE MADE OF IT while we are here as a family. Sometimes we don't have a lot of options when we PCS.

This link below is the most informative site for school scores because it's actual performance scores from the Hawaii Department of Education (DoE). The Great Schools sites, etc., only provide some of their rankings based on what parents think of it. The best analysis is the actual school performance scores. Click on the Hawaii performance link below, select a school and click on "READ MORE".

HAWAII PUBLIC SCHOOL STRIVE HAWAII PERFORMANCE REPORT.
If you click on the school you are interested in, look for the link to the STRIVE 2018/2019 most recent performance report. 

HAWAII CHARTER SCHOOL STRIVE HAWAII PERFORMANCE REPORT. 

I'm not sure how they calculate their ratings but this is niche.com's list of the top ranked elementary schools. 

Also here is the list from Greatschools.com 

US News and world report for top Highschools in Hawaii 2020

  • #1 Henry J. Kaiser HS (Hawaii Kai)

  • #2 Theodore Roosevelt HS (Town)

  • #3 Mililani HS (Schofield/Wheeler area)

  • #4 Moanalua HS (Fort Shafter/Tripler area)

  • #5 Kalani HS (Diamond Head/Kahala area)

  • #6 Kalaheo HS

  • #7 Aiea HS

  • #8 William Mckinley HS (Town)

  • #9 Waiakea (Big Island)

  • #10 King Kekauliki HS (Maui)

Leilehua HS, Mililani HS, Radford HS and Campbell HS are the only four schools in the state under the National Math and Science initiative (NMSI).

Students have access to rigorous college-level AP courses, and classrooms received computers, science equipment and other materials needed.


HAWAII MULTITRACK ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS

​In an effort to support working families in our community and provide some stability, the Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) announced its three multi-track schools on Oahu will temporarily convert to a single-track schedule in the fall.

During a non COVID year, a few Hawaii Public schools have a track system in which you are on one of 4 tracks throughout the year. TRACK schools go all year long. The track schools are: Holomua Elementary, Kapolei Elementary, Kapolei Middle and Mililani Middle are all on the track system, in which groups of students begin the school year at different periods of the calendar.

Hawaii DOE SCHOOL BOUNDARIES

The Hawaii public schools have boundaries for neighborhoods. Here is a link to look for a school in the area for which you may reside. If you click on the “School site locator” at the bottom of the page you will launch an interactive map. Click on the area for which you will reside, or enter and address, and it will provide you the names of the schools in that boundary. 

In Sep 2017, per KHON2, Public schools enrolled 168,095 students (down 1,173 from last year), and charter schools saw an increase of enrollment with 11,160 students (up 526 from last year) and the addition of two new charter schools.

In 2017-18, the five largest public schools by grade level are:

High Schools (all grades 9-12): Campbell (3,110), Mililani (2,571), Waipahu (2,554), Farrington (2,309), Kapolei (2,035).

Intermediate (grades 7-8)/Middle (grades 6-8): Mililani Middle (1,873), Kapolei Middle (1,521), Waipahu Intermediate (1,294), Maui Waena Intermediate (1,176), Kalakaua Middle (1,075).

Elementary Schools: August Ahrens (1,249), Holomua (1,163), Ewa (1,070), Keoneula (1,037), Waipahu (1,026).

The five largest charter schools are: Hawaii Technology Academy (1,111), Kamaile Academy (858), Ka Waihona O Ka Naauao (653), Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences (644), Myron Thompson Academy (582).

 

Solomon Elementary School 2020 Schofield, Wahiawa, Hawaii

Solomon Elementary School 2020 Schofield, Wahiawa, Hawaii

Need daycare or Childcare for younger kids under 5?

Army Child Care

Six centers located within US Army Garrison -HI on the Island of Oahu. Programs include Full Day (6 weeks - 5 years), Part Day (3 - 5 years) and Hourly Care (6 weeks - 12 years). Schofield Barracks Parent Central Services Office: 808- 655-5314. Aliamanu Military Reservation Parent Central Services Office: (808) 833-5393. Family Child Care program provides child care in a home setting for children between the ages of 4 weeks to 12 years of age. Every Public School has trained individuals on Special Needs. 

JBPHH Childcare 

Child development center, School Age care, and Child development homes.

Registration Process to Add Children on the CDC Waiting List

To register for any of the Child Development Centers', School Age Care or Child Development Homes waitlist for full day/part day care go to Military Childcare website to set up a request and family account. For more information and to learn about all CNRH CYP Programs visit the website or call (808)473-0361 and speak to the CYP Program Office.

Search outside of Base for childcare

Childcare center search for preschool and infants in Hawaii across 571 facilities.

Kaneohe Family care

Kaneohe Child Development Center

If you are already had Special Needs evaluated from your previous school, once you pick a school, contact the Student Services Coordinator (SSC) who "will probably accept your paperwork for your current special Ed program" so you can go right into it without evaluation. They said as soon as you pick your school send in the paperwork right away. 

This is a great article on Special education. The school can do and evaluation to determine special needs. It's a 60 day evaluation process you with the school you choose (you might probably be familiar with this kind of thing already). 

Another choice for evaluation is if you get referred to the Learning Disabilities ADHD clinic, they can do testing with four, 2 hour sessions and they they write up the assessment report. The public school may require the teachers to observe and evaluate and so LD ADHD uses trained behavioral specialists to analyze your child's behavior. 

Here is an informative link about Special Education information across the U.S. by state. Hawaii is on page 24. 

Ask your child’s classroom and/or special education teacher to write a brief narrative about your child’s current educational program that you can share with the state at your child’s new school.

Family interview with special needs.

I had the pleasure of interviewing a family who has a special needs school age kid with cerebral palsy. He lives in WEST OAHU, out in EWA (Evah) beach. He moved here from an assignment from England and I asked him how hard was it to find schools for his child. He said he found "Holomua elementary school" in Ewa Gentry area and he went through an exhaustive special needs evaluation process but was glad he did. The school has a low student to teacher ratio and they really challenge the students as much as possible. They have an assistant for his daughter to help her when she's in a bind and a Physical Therapist that works with her weekly. That sounds like a great team at this school to help make this child successful without getting hurt. 

http://holomuael.blogspot.com/?m=0

“Ask your child’s classroom and/or special education teacher to write a brief narrative about your child’s current educational program that you can share with the state at your child’s new school. ”
— Quote Source

SPECIAL NEEDS checklist before you PCS

Make sure that you have paper copies of your child’s:

  • Most recent transcripts and grade reports;

  • Most recent eligibility reports where your child was determined eligible for special education;

  • Current and past individual reports on programs (IEP), including quarterly progress reports;

  • Special education assessment reports, including:

    • School psychology;

    • Occupational or physical therapy;

    • Speech-language pathology;

    • Other reports contained in the special educa on le.

    • Names of particular textbooks or other materials that were used by your child;

    • Medical reports;

    • If applicable, reports from service providers not connected to school, such as a private therapist;

    • Other important records to ensure your child can be enrolled on arrival;

    • Prescriptions for medications and dosages. 

Thanks for reading and please share your experiences with me on my FB group, HAWAII MILITARY LIFE, so we can help others. I mainly post Local Hawaii events and information in that group. And if you are retiring or transitioning, please join our HAWAII MILITARY RETIRED VETERANS LIFE Facebook group.

We just created our new INSTAGRAM account Hawaiimilitarylife808. We try to look for a lot of FREE events or discounts for Military. We also post PCS info, buying a car, pet info, BAH, and anything related to Military command events in Hawaii. You can search through our Facebook site in the Announcements section has all the reference information there. Mahalo and welcome to Hawaii!