Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Education and Economic Development, to which was referred S.B. No. 1697 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to transfer the School-to-Work transition program, including the advisory council, staff, appropriations, and equipment, from the Department of Education (DOE) to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR).

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Resources for the City and County of Honolulu. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by DLIR.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by DOE, the State School-to-Work Opportunities Executive Council, the University of Hawaii, and the Chancellor for Community Colleges.

Your Committees find that it is of paramount importance to our island community to assist our students in becoming better prepared for post-secondary education and future employment. The transition to work program was established in 1984 within the DLIR and incorporated DLIR's Quick Kokua program and career resource centers that provided school-based counseling and other services to assist high school students in transitioning from school to the workforce or higher education. In 1996, the program was transferred from the DLIR to the DOE which housed the program's transition centers in public school facilities.

Your Committees also find that under section 202-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the DLIR's workforce development council is charged with fulfilling "the functions of the state workforce investment board for purposes of the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Public Law No. 105-220." Since the development of improved youth programs is a key component of the council's duty to prepare a comprehensive state plan for workforce development, your Committees further find that the DLIR, rather than the DOE, is the appropriate agency to oversee and administer the State's School-to-Work transition centers.

Upon further consideration, your Committees believe that only the School-to-Work transition centers should be transferred to the DLIR, and that the concerns raised at the hearing merit further consideration.

Therefore, your Committees have amended the measure as follows:

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Education and Economic Development that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1697, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1697, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.