Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 13 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Governor to establish a statewide interagency task force to develop a plan for coordination and expansion of services provided through Healthy Start to young children and their families.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Maui Family Support Services, Inc.; the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation; Blueprint for Change; Good Beginnings Alliance; and Parents and Children Together. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Early Intervention Coordinating Council. The Department of Human Services and the Judiciary submitted comments on this measure.

Your Committees find that Healthy Start, a Department of Health program that aims to reduce child abuse and neglect through the early identification of at-risk families and provision of home visits and other services, was first implemented as a pilot project in 1985, and by 2000, had been expanded to reach at-risk families statewide. Currently, Healthy Start screens fifty-two per cent of Hawaii's pregnant women for risk factors that would identify them for home visiting services.

Your Committees further find that the Healthy Start program has been extensively evaluated and has been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of child abuse and neglect among families at risk. Based on its documented positive outcomes, Hawaii's Healthy Start program has become a model child abuse prevention program. The Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation has supported the implementation of a culturally relevant adaptation of the Healthy Start Program in the Philippines.

Your Committees further find that, although the Department of Health administers the Healthy Start program, the Department of Human Services is responsible for investigating reported cases of child abuse and neglect. However, it appears that many high-risk families may not be identified as needing prevention and intervention services such as Healthy Start, only to later become part of the child protective services system after neglect and abuse have occurred. Your Committees find that, due to the fragmentation of the State's efforts in assessing and providing services to at-risk families, this "gap group" of families are falling through the cracks.

Accordingly, your Committees find that better coordination and collaboration between the Departments of Health and Human Services, and private providers would provide at-risk families with targeted, coordinated assessment, intervention, and treatment services and would result in a more effective use of limited resources.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 13, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 13, S.D. 1.