REPORT TITLE:
$ For Na Keiki Law Center


DESCRIPTION:
Appropriates $200,000 for fiscal year 1999-2000, for a grant-in-
aid for the Na Keiki Law Center of Hawaii Lawyers Care

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        
THE SENATE                              S.B. NO.           170
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________


                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE NEEDS AND RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 


BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the economic and
 
 2 social well-being of a society is directly reflected by the state
 
 3 of its children, and by all indicators, Hawaii's children are not
 
 4 well.  Children account for nearly one-half of the poverty
 
 5 population in Hawaii.  There are 306,500 children in Hawaii of
 
 6 whom nearly 22 per cent, or 65,000, live in poverty.  In
 
 7 addition, a growing number of children, nearly 20,000, are
 
 8 without health insurance.  In 1995, there were 2,635 cases of
 
 9 confirmed child abuse and one-third of the children who are
 
10 abused and neglected are native Hawaiians.  In 1998, every two
 
11 hours a child was reported abused or neglected.  Every five hours
 
12 a baby was born to a teenage mother.  Every three days a baby
 
13 died during the first year of life. 
 
14      Examples of injustice to children include family court
 
15 judges who request services for children that are denied due to
 
16 lack of funds; teen parents with no family support unable to
 
17 obtain housing or health care because they are minors; child
 
18 victims of violent crimes who testify in court without
 
19 representation.  
 

 
Page 2                                                     
                                     S.B. NO.           170
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      The legal needs of our children need to be addressed to help
 
 2 them receive the services and care to which they are entitled and
 
 3 for which they need to become contributing and healthy adult
 
 4 members of our community.  The dramatic lack of resources that
 
 5 focus on the legal needs of children cries out for a solution. 
 
 6      The Na Keiki Law Center will be a private-public partnership
 
 7 of legal representation and advocacy for children.  Private
 
 8 foundation moneys and public funds will be combined in a joint
 
 9 effort to sponsor a new initiative for increased recognition of
 
10 the rights of children.
 
11      Na Keiki Law Center, a project of Hawaii Lawyers Care, will
 
12 focus exclusively on the legal needs and the rights of children.
 
13 Children will be its clients and their welfare will be its
 
14 mission.  It will be available to the community and to individual
 
15 children to ensure that children have a voice in the judicial
 
16 process, in the administrative process, and in the legislative
 
17 arena.  It will divert children from the criminal justice system
 
18 by offering solutions to their problems and choices for the
 
19 future.
 
20      The Na Keiki Law Center is grounded in the belief that there
 
21 is nothing more important and more valuable in maintaining a
 
22 strong society than ensuring children's rights are protected, not
 
23 just their right to be safe, but their rights to be housed,
 

 
Page 3                                                     
                                     S.B. NO.           170
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 educated, supported, and to live free of violence. 
 
 2      SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
 3 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $200,000, or so much
 
 4 thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 1999-2000, for a
 
 5 grant-in-aid for the Na Keiki Law Center of Hawaii Lawyers Care.
 
 6      SECTION 3.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
 7 department of labor, office of community services for the
 
 8 purposes of this Act.
 
 9      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 1999.
 
10 
 
11                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________