RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the Healthy Start program model was initiated in 1985 by the Department of Health as a pilot project to reduce child abuse and neglect through early identification of at-risk families; and

WHEREAS, by 2000, the Legislature funded Healthy Start to provide services statewide; and

WHEREAS, these program sites are situated in all urban and rural communities and screen over ninety per cent of Hawaii's pregnant women for risk factors that would identify them for home visiting services; and

WHEREAS, although the Department of Health administers the Healthy Start program, the responsibility for assessing reports of child abuse and neglect is assigned to the Child Protective Services program within the Department of Human Services; and

WHEREAS, in 2003 the Legislature passed S.C.R. 13, which established an interagency task force to develop an implementation plan for the coordination and expansion of services provided to young children at risk and their families; and

WHEREAS, the preliminary recommendations developed by the task force may require legislative action, changes in resources, or commitments from additional agency resources; and

WHEREAS, the task force has requested an extension to further develop implementation plans to assure coordination and monitoring of services to the very highest risk families with newborns and infants; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the statewide interagency task force be extended for one more year; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force work to achieve the following:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the task force is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2006 Regular Session; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health, Director of Human Services, the Administrative Director of the Courts, the Healthy Start program, Alliance for Health and Human Services, the chairs of the Child Protective Services Citizen Review Panels, the chairs of the Child and Welfare Services Advisory Councils, Good Beginnings Alliance, Like a Child, Hawaii Children's Trust Fund, Blueprint for Change, Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation, Hawaii Family Support Institute, Child-at-Risk Evaluation program, and the Salvation Army.

Report Title:

One Year Extension of the Statewide Interagency Task Force