Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 205, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require public employers to provide paid leave for employees of at least eight hours per year for personal matters involving the education or health of their children. This measure also provides that such leave will not be credited against vacation or sick leave benefits.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Parents and Children Together and Hawaii Coalition for Dads. The Office of the Lieutenant Governor submitted testimony supporting the intent of the measure, however, requesting revised language to provide leave without pay.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Resources Development.

Your Committee finds that in order to promote parental involvement in the lives of children, public employees should be afforded the benefit of paid leave for personal matters relating to the health and education of children. Paid leave will provide parents with the opportunity to more actively participate in their children's lives while fostering family and child development. Currently, based upon Administrative Directive No. 93-02, public employees are provided up to four hours paid leave to attend parent-teacher or parent-caregiver conferences per school year. Your Committee believes that statutory codification of this policy is necessary to solidify the State's commitment to promoting the well being of children and the family unit as a whole.

However, your Committee believes that the measure should be clarified to allow parents to only attend to matters of health and education of their minor children, and the measure has been amended accordingly.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 205, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 205, S.D. 2.