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. 2149 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify the disclosure requirements of information that may be released by the family court in missing child cases.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Volunteer Legal Services of Hawaii, Waimanalo Health Center, and Keiki Injury Prevention Coalition. Testimony in opposition was received from the Department of Social Services and Housing.

This measure would require the family court, in ordering access to information related to cases involving a missing child, to determine whether access will materially assist authorities in locating the child. A determination granting access raises specific rebuttable presumptions.

This measure has its genesis in Kema v. Gaddis, 91 Haw. 200 (1999), wherein the Hawaii Supreme Court invalidated a family court order that authorized the release of information in a child protective proceeding. This measure addresses the court's concerns about the effect of the release of information upon the child's minor siblings, by requiring that the court first weigh the interests of finding the missing child against the potentially harmful effect that access may have to the other siblings.

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. 2149 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.