A federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday granted a request to move up the date of a court hearing regarding the teacher furloughs.

Honolulu lawyers representing families of special-education students are appealing a federal judge’s ruling on Nov. 9 that rejected their request to halt “furlough Fridays.”
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima said although the lost classroom days are likely to cause “irreparable harm" to the special-education students, he believed ordering schools to be reopened would cause more harm than good.
Yesterday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a plaintiffs’ request to move up the appeals process.
The State if Hawaiçi must now file its response to the appeal by Dec. 10, instead of Jan. 7 as originally scheduled. The plaintiffs expect that a hearing will be held before the end of the year in San Francisco, before a three-judge appellate panel, said an e-mail from plaintiffs attorney Carl Varady.