Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Health, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 63 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to continue the joint Senate-House investigative committee to investigate the State's efforts to comply with the Felix Consent Decree.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association and an individual.

Your Committees find that the joint Senate-House investigative committee is a valuable means of monitoring the State's effort to comply with the Felix Consent Decree and provides a degree of responsiveness to the stakeholders that may be missing from other entities of state government. This is particularly true in terms of monitoring the billing practices and service delivery of service providers. These efforts should continue, so as to ensure the ongoing delivery of high-quality, need-appropriate, cost-effective special education services by the public education system of the State of Hawaii.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 63, and recommend its adoption.