STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2179

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2087

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2087 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY INTERVENTION SERVICES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to require, rather than permit, the Department of Health to develop a statewide, coordinated multidisciplinary program which contains a continuum of services to meet the needs to infants and toddlers with special needs.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by one individual.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that early intervention is essential to the health and development of children with disabilities such as Down syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and extreme prematurity.  Your Committees also note the testimony stressing the need for continued eligibility for early intervention services through the school year for children who turn three years of age during that school year.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended the measure by inserting language that provides for toddlers with disabilities to continue with services past their third birthday when certain prerequisites are met.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2087, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2087, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair