{"id":18122,"date":"2026-01-23T10:01:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?page_id=18122"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:38:35","slug":"mo%ca%bbaukala-o-ka-papahana-kaiapuni","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/zh\/academics\/hawaiian-education\/mo%ca%bbaukala-o-ka-papahana-kaiapuni\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u014d\u02bbaukala o ka Papahana Kaiapuni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brief History of Hawaiian Language Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the arrival of the first company of Calvinist missionaries in 1820, \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi was solely an oral language. With this understanding and armed with a printing press and hopes of conveying the Gospel printed in Hawaiian for a Hawaiian-reading population, the missionaries got to work on developing a written form of \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi. In January of 1822, the first printed piece came off the press and a month later, 500 copies of a 16-page Hawaiian Language speller-primer were ready with a tentative alphabet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missionaries first targeted the Ali\u02bbi nui (highest Chiefs), who took quickly to this innovation and the advantages of written correspondence. By 1832, over 23,000 adults were reading and writing in Hawaiian. In 1840, the Kingdom of Hawai\u02bbi shifted its focus to children and established the Ministry of Education with a constitutional mandate for compulsory education for children 15 years and younger\u2014the 5th country in the world to do so, predating America and the majority of Europe . By 1853, the Ministry had over 420 Hawaiian language schools, contributing to an 91-95% Hawaiian language literacy rate amongst the people in the later half of the 19th-century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time, several dozen Hawaiian language newspapers informed, connected, and entertained the Hawaiian reading populace. Topics included current events, cultural practices, original transcriptions of epic oral narratives, and serialization of translated English literary works such as Ivanhoe and The Arabian Nights, and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai\u02bbi in 1893, \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi was marginalized and in 1896, the governing body of the time known as the Republic of Hawaii codified into law that only English would be \u201cthe medium and basis of instruction in all public and private schools\u201d essentially banned Hawaiian language from the public school system and by the turn of the century, there were no longer any Hawaiian Language Schools (Section 30, Laws of the Republic of Hawai\u02bbi, 1896). In 1895, the President of the Board of Education, William Alexander, commented: \u201cThe gradual extinction of a Polynesian dialect may be regretted for sentimental reasons, but it is certainly for the interest of the Hawaiians themselves\u201d (Republic of Hawai\u02bbi\u2013Biennial Report of the Bureau of Public Instruction 1895). The prevailing mindset that speaking the Hawaiian language was not in the best interest of Hawaiians influenced projects, policies, programs, and practice within the Department for most of the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an important note to consider, the last printing of a Hawaiian language newspaper was in 1953. This meant that the avenue for a community of native speakers of \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi who were successful at reading and writing would become more and more narrow; this essentially relegated the use of Hawaiian as the language of society to a practice of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beginnings of Hawaiian Language Immersion Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s saw a rise in Hawaiian self-identity manifest in music, political civic engagement, and a resurgence of cultural practices. A few iconic moments include the establishment of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival (1964), H\u014dk\u016ble\u02bba\u2019s journey across the Pacific (1975), the Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana (1976), and the State Constitutional Convention that established the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and made Hawaiian an official State language (1978). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time, there were students studying the Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai\u02bbi who wanted to take the Hawaiian language from a subject of study to one spoken in everyday life. In the early 1980s, this group came across a M\u0101ori language immersion preschool program in Aotearoa (New Zealand) called K\u014dhanga Reo and decided to emulate it by giving birth to the P\u016bnana Leo movement of Hawaiian language immersion preschools. The first P\u016bnana Leo preschool opened in 1984 on Kaua\u02bbi, followed in 1985 with a P\u016bnana Leo in Hilo and Honolulu, and then in 1986 with P\u016bnana Leo o Maui.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents with children in the P\u016bnana Leo preschools made the conscious decision to seek to establish an avenue for Hawaiian-medium education in the Public Education system rather than end with preschool education. In 1986, these \u02bbohana lobbied the State Legislature to establish Ka Papahana Kaiapuni in the Hawai\u02bbi Department of Education. From no Hawaiian language schools in 1900 to two in 1987, Hawai\u02bbi today has 28 Hawaiian language schools, composed mainly of Kaiapuni Hawai\u02bbi sites plus public charter schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ka Papahana Kaiapuni Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In February 2015, the Office of Hawaiian Education (OHE) was established under the Department’s Office of the Superintendent due to a policy audit conducted by the Hawai\u02bbi State Board of Education (BOE), which recognized that education in Hawai\u02bbi \u201c\u200b\u200bshould embody Hawaiian values, language, culture and history as a foundation to prepare students in grades K-12 for success in college, career and communities, locally and globally (Hawai\u02bbi BOE Policy 105-7, 2014). The programs governed by OHE include: E-3<\/a> N\u0101 Hopena A\u02bbo, 105-7<\/a> Hawaiian Education, and 105-8<\/a> Ka Papahana Kaiapuni\u200b\u200b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In SY 2024-25, the Department served 2,452 students enrolled in 22 DOE Kula Kaiapuni on five islands across the State\u2014Hawai\u02bbi Island, Maui, L\u0101na\u02bbi, Moloka\u02bbi, and O\u02bbahu. In addition, there were 1,320 students enrolled in 6 Kaiapuni Hawaiian language immersion charter schools operating on 4 islands\u2014Hawai\u02bbi Island, Moloka\u02bbi, O\u02bbahu, and Kaua\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaiapuni instruction is delivered exclusively in \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi, with the introduction of English starting at Grade 5. Students may access Kula Kaiapuni starting in Papa M\u0101laa\u02bbo (Kindergarten) and may graduate from the program at Grade 12. Students who graduate from Kula Kaiapuni are expected to meet the Board of Education graduation credit requirements (Board of Education Policy 102-15) and in doing so, receive their diploma commensurate with those requirements. Board of Education Policy 105-8 states that \u201cKa Papahana Kaiapuni (Kaiapuni Educational Program) provides students with Hawaiian bilingual and bicultural education,\u201d and to that end, Kaiapuni graduates have an additional expectation of proficiency in both official languages of the State of Hawai\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, OHE has taken a broad approach in its work to address capacity building and systems change. The goal is to increase readiness within the Department to take on the more significant task of strategic planning for a high-quality \u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi educational experience for Kaiapuni students and families. The focus for OHE\u2019s work related to Kaiapuni education has been to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n