STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2027

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2447
                                        




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was
referred S.B. No. 2447 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY CHILDHOOD,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a child care
facilities special grant fund, and to make appropriations to
improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of early
childhood services and to provide coordination to the early
childhood care system.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Good
Beginnings Alliance, and Honolulu Community Action Program, Inc.

     This measure makes the following appropriations:

     (1)  $500,000 to the child care facilities special grant
          fund;

     (2)  $3,000,000 to increase the number of child care
          subsidies and provide parent workshops to recipients of
          child care subsidies, with an allocation for each
          county;

     (3)  $155,000 to expand and continue the accreditation-
          mentor project for early childhood programs, with an
          allocation for each county;

 
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     (4)  $150,000 for the coordination and implementation of the
          Good Beginnings Alliance initiative, on a matching
          basis;

     (5)  $364,000 for fiscal year 2000-2001, for the expansion
          of Families for REAL to certain schools, and $360,000
          for fiscal year 2000-2001, for expansion of Families
          for REAL to additional school sites;

     (6)  $465,470 to increase the capacity of the keiki/family
          interactive mobile units;

     (7)  An unspecified sum for child care for parenting teens;
          and

     (8)  $35,000 to provide financial assistance for persons in
          attaining a child development associate credential.

     Your Committee finds that recent neuroscience research
demonstrates that the early years of a child are most crucial in
a child's cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development,
and affirms that there are tremendous opportunities for
preventive work with children and families as well as the
predictable, costly consequences of not doing so.  Your Committee
further finds that quality early childhood education and child
care that supports all aspects of early development by parents
and care givers in a variety of settings, including child care
centers, family child care, and in the homes of families and
friends, is crucial to ensuring that every young child has a good
beginning and does not lose the potential with which the child
was born.

     Your Committee further finds that additional funding in
selected programs targeting key populations, strategically linked
together at the local level, can significantly enhance the
State's capacity to achieve these outcomes, as well as leverage
additional federal and private dollars.

     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. 2447 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and
be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.


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



                                   ______________________________
                                   SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 
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