Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1000 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require members of the clergy to report cases of child abuse to the Police Department or to the Department of Human Services.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Child Welfare Services State Advisory Council, Department of Human Services, Christian Science Committee Publication, Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, President of the Children's Alliance of Hawaii, Hawaii Superintendent of the United Methodist Church, Coordinator for the Hawaii Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Director of the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, and one private individual.

Your Committee finds that members of the clergy should have a legal responsibility and duty to provide information to the appropriate authorities to ensure the safety and well being of a child who has been abused or neglected. However, your Committee believes that information of abuse and neglect that was obtained by means of a confidential communication, confession, or admission, such as information obtained in a confessional, should not be subject to this rule.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1000, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1000, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.