The School Community Based Management (SCBM) process for the Hawaii public school system, legislated in 1989, elicits input from administrators, teachers, support staff, parents, students, and community members. SCBM shifts some of the decision making powers to the school and can be adopted by a school on a voluntary basis. This study develops a qualitative response model which attempts to explain an individual school's decision to adopt SCBM. The study applied a profit procedure using school-level characteristics and socioeconomic data for all of Hawaii's public schools. A subset of explanatory variables was identified as statistically significant in impacting the probability of adoption of SCBM. The variables that positively affected the choice to become an SCBM school included: (1) the percentage of students in attendance for the entire school year; and (2) the percentage of classrooms available relative to state requirements. The percentage of students receiving free lunches and the percentage of students scoring in the above-average stanine of the SAT scores in reading demonstrated a significant negative impact on the SCBM decision. The percentage of teachers remaining at the school longer than 5 years was also negatively correlated with the adoption of SCBM. Tests for goodness-of-fit found that the model provided a fairly good fit and that it was more successful in predicting nonadoption of SCBM. The model is deficient in its omission of leadership qualities and impacts of departmental policies. Five tables and two figures are included. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/LMI)