Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 957, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education to provide a full provider and service matrix of services which identity all available community and state resources, Hawaii Child and Adolescent System Service Principles, mental health services for students not deemed eligible for the Felix Class, and interventions to correct present systemic problems that interfere with the smooth delivery of comprehensive student support services. The measure also establishes a joint legislative taskforce to monitor and assess the comprehensive student support system.

Your Committee heard testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that the Comprehensive Student Support System is currently operating in all of the public schools in the State and is meeting many of the needs of the children of the State. With the Court-directed expansion of school- and community-based services provided by the Felix Response Plan and sustained by the biennium budget requests that have been submitted, children will be provided with an expanded array of services in the schools. The success of this program and approach has currently been documented by the recent service testing results. These results have demonstrated that over half of the children in the State are now attending schools in compliance with the standards established by the Felix Consent Decree.

Your Committee has amended the measure to require the Department of Education, through its Comprehensive Student Support System, to adopt best practices, disclose potential conflicts of interest as a part of the individualized education program process, and monitor services ordered through individualized education programs to ensure that they are resulting in improved educational achievement. Your Committee also has amended the measure to clarify the role of the joint legislative taskforce.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 957, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 957, S.D. 2.