RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, the disabled community in the country as well as in Hawaii has been a priority by the federal and state government in providing essential services and programs; and

WHEREAS, the deaf or individuals with hearing impairment are roughly ten per cent of the population in the country and similarly in the State of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, a federal law provided for an agreement among the U.S. Department of Education, State Department of Education, and Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind, creating libraries across the country including the State of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, the effective date of this agreement is September 1, 2004, through August 31, 2005, which is renewable annually; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii library is operated by the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind, which accepts captioned educational media from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and all captioned media will remain the property of the U.S. government; and

WHEREAS, the Captioned Media Program (CMP) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Special Education Program and is administered by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and CMP; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of CMP is to provide a free-loan program library and over 4,000 open-captioned titles (videos, CD-ROM, and DVD) for the deaf and hard of hearing persons, teachers, parents, and others to borrow materials, and there are no rental, registration, or postage fees; and

WHEREAS, the function of the CMP library in Hawaii is to perform free-loan captioned media services, including booking/shipping media, to register clients within the library's assigned region and to perform marketing/outreach activities in this region; and

WHEREAS, the main service areas of the CMP Library in Hawaii are the State of Hawaii, Territory of American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Center for the Blind and Deaf is expected to assign and pay the salary of a person to be designated as a "CMP Library Manager", to exercise in the care and management and use of captioned media, and to perform specific functions, as follows:

WHEREAS, the major problem with Hawaii Center for Blind and Deaf is that CMP has not received any monthly reports or invoices since July of 2004 as mandated under the agreement and CMP has no knowledge on whether services were provided or not; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Library is expected to perform CMP marketing and outreach program, and more importantly, a library may be closed and the contents will be relocated if these activities do no not occur on a monthly basis and other requirements as set forth in the agreement between NAD and the Hawaii Center for the Blind and Deaf; 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 Department of Education is requested to update its report entitled "Caption Media Program" under the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), as provided by the agreement among the U.S. Department of Education, State Department of Education, and Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind, and to comply with the agreement; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Superintendent of Education, the President of the Friends of Learning, Inc., and the Hawaii Center for the Blind and Deaf.

Report Title:

CPM Library: Hawaii Center for the Blind and Deaf