Commentary from Senator Sakamoto

April 25, 2007

Playground Equipment for All Children

On March 16, the Honolulu Advertiser reported that more than half of Hawaii public elementary schools lack playground equipment appropriate for children between ages 2 to 5, and that 16 elementary schools have no playground equipment at all.  In response to our inquiry, the Department of Education provided us with the following statistics describing the latest inventory of playground equipment:

• 84 out of 180 elementary schools (47%) have equipment geared toward children ages 2-5.
• 137 elementary schools (76%) have equipment geared toward children ages 5-12.
• 37 elementary schools (21%) have fitness equipment.
• 28 elementary schools (16%) have other types of older equipment that had not been removed previously and will need to be checked to see if they pose safety problems.
• 16 elementary schools (8%) have no playground equipment.  Five out of the 16 schools have playground equipment projects which have been funded, but the equipment has not yet been installed. 

Bottom line, we want all schools to have age appropriate playground equipment.  Progress is being made towards reaching that goal.  Additional playgrounds have been funded through the State budget, the Joint Venture Education Forum, and Hawaii 3Rs.