STAND. COM. REP. NO. 372

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 115

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 115 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require a child to undergo a physical examination prior to attending seventh grade, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Department of Education, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Hawaii Community Pharmacy Association, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Hawaii Public Health Institute, and Hawaii Primary Care Association.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Island School Garden Network and Hawaii Academy of Physician Assistants.

 

     Your Committees find that in Hawaii, more than one in two adults and over one in four high school students are overweight or obese.  Without effective intervention, these numbers are projected to increase over the next two decades.  This measure stimulates family and community engagement, while bringing together physicians and health care providers with parents and adolescents to address physical and mental health issues.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 115 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Education,

 

____________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair