Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1233 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services on behalf of the youth services centers under the jurisdiction of the Department's Office of Youth Services.

Furthermore, this measure expands the responsibilities of youth services centers to include being responsive to the needs of the immediate communities, offering an array of services tailored to the needs of the constituents, and considering certain factors in developing core activities.

Your Committee finds that this measure provides additional information and guidelines for the development of youth service centers by the Office of Youth Services and is consistent with the Office's philosophy and overall guiding principles governing youth service centers.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the appropriation from an unspecified amount to the specific sum of $1, by changing the effective date to July 1, 2001, and by requiring the Office of Youth Services to present a working plan of action regarding Act 375, Session Laws of Hawaii 1989.

Your Committee has further amended this measure by incorporating the contents of H.B. No. 915. This measure, which was also heard by your Committee, appropriates an unspecified amount of general funds to the Hookala diversion lock-up program in the Office of Youth Services. State funding for the Hookala program will assist in ensuring that formula grant moneys from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are used as intended to improve the continuum of services for at risk juveniles and those already in the juvenile justice system. Your Committee has also changed the appropriation amount for this program to $1.

Your Committee believes that folding H.B. No. 915 into H.B. No. 1233 represents an initial attempt to address issues raised in a recent study of the Office of Youth Services, to properly fund mandates under Act 375, Session Laws of Hawaii 1989, that have not been satisfactorily implemented, and to address core issues concerning the continuum of care.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1233, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1233, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.