Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2039 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow a sibling to file an action in family court requesting reasonable visitation, if the sibling is of full legal age and capacity, or if not, then by the sibling's spouse, parent, custodian, or guardian. It also provides that in every adoption case, the court's determination that a child is an orphan raises a rebuttable presumption that reasonable visitation by the child's sibling is in the best interest of the child.

Testimony in support of this measure was received by the Department of Human Services, Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition, Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition, Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii, and five individuals. The Judiciary submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committee finds that it is important that siblings maintain continuing relationships with one another after they are removed from their parents' custody to allow them to better adjust to their new circumstances. The Legislature established rights of grandparents in statutes over a decade ago, holding that it was in the best interest of the child to maintain that relationship. Surely, a sibling relationship deserves similar treatment.

The Judiciary raised concerns regarding whose best interest is being protected under the measure--the child who is the subject of the visitation petition, or the sibling who files the petition. Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this measure by defining "child" to clarify that it is the child who is the subject of the petition whose best interests are to be protected, and by deleting the rebuttable presumption that reasonable visitation by the child's siblings is in the best interests of a child who has been declared an orphan by the court.

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. 2039, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2039, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.