STAND. COM. REP. NO.2082

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2753

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2753 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Human Services (DHS) to comply with state and federal program mandates to care for children who are removed from their family homes due to abuse or neglect.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from DHS and from Blueprint for Change.

Your Committee finds that increasing demands have been placed on the entire DHS child protection system. Payments for room and board, permanency assistance, adoption assistance, and difficulty-of-care allowances must be made to foster and adoptive parents, permanent custodians, and legal guardians of special needs children.

The number of children for whom such payments must be made has risen sharply over the past several months, and DHS is unable to cover the costs with its current appropriation levels. Additional funds are necessary if permanent homes are to be found for the children who cannot return to their family homes. State and federal law mandates such care.

Your Committee fully supports this measure, and further supports DHS' child protection system. Our children are the most vulnerable sector of our society, and the State must commit to helping every child find a safe and loving home.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2753 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

____________________________

DAVID MATSUURA, Chair