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 S.B. No. 2056 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to designate the Auditor as an authorized representative of the Department of Education and Department of Health for purposes of accessing student records.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the Auditor. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Attorney General, Department of Education, Department of Health, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and Radford High School.

Your Committees find that the issue of confidentiality has prevented the Auditor from conducting a thorough review of concerns surrounding the provision of mental health services to Felix class students. This measure would facilitate the Auditor's work with the Joint Senate-House Investigative Committee to investigate the State's compliance with the Felix consent decree and related matters, which may continue for some time to come.

Your Committees have amended the measure by deleting the provision repealing the measure on June 30, 2005.

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 are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2056, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2056, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.