STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2606
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 2328
S.D. 2
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2006
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2328, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NOTICE TO FOSTER PARENTS FOR CHAPTER 587, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES, CHILD PROTECTIVE ACT HEARINGS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to authorize a child's current foster parents to attend and participate as parties in all Child Protective Act proceedings subsequent to a disposition hearing.
The Department of Human Services and Hawaii Foster Parent Association submitted testimony in support of this measure.
Your Committee finds that it is in a child's interest to give the child's foster parent an opportunity to attend the child protective hearings, subsequent to the disposition hearing, and to provide information to the court.
Your Committee amended this measure to take into account the recommendations of the Hawaii Foster Parent Association to:
(1) Acknowledge respect for the child's interest in confidentiality;
(2) Delete reference to "parents" when used in conjunction with "parties" as parents are already parties in protective hearings;
(3) Expand the notice requirement from forty-eight hours to seven calendar days, unless a hearing is set in a shorter time frame; and
(4) Allow notice via facsimile or electronic mail where receipt can be confirmed.
Your Committee also amended this measure to make technical, non-substantive changes.
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. 2328, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2328, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,
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____________________________ COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair |
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