SR16

WHEREAS, in July 2003, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) conducted a Child and Family Services Review (Review), in which they found that Hawaii's Department of Human Services (DHS) did not meet the federal standards in six out of the seven welfare outcome areas and five of the seven systemic factors; and

WHEREAS, the outcome of the DHHS Review could have subjected the State to a $1,900,000 penalty, but this was reduced to $170,978 due to the achievement of the two-year Program Improvement Plan goals, in all but two areas; and

WHEREAS, based on the 2003 DHHS Review, some of the key areas in which DHS needed improvement were:

(1) Providing a timely response to child abuse and neglect reports;

(2) Taking action to protect children from the risk of harm on active cases;

(3) Reducing the incidence of re-entry into foster care and increasing the stability in foster placement; and

(4) Implementing quality assurance monitoring and continuous system improvement;

and

WHEREAS, finding that children of substance abusing parents are three times more likely to be abused and four times more likely to be neglected, the 2004 Joint House-Senate Task Force on Ice and Drug Abatement recommended the development of a drug endangered child protection program; and

WHEREAS, to protect the safety and welfare of children:

(1) The federal Adoption and Safe Family Act of 1997 requires children to be permanently placed after 15 months in foster care, terminating the birth parents' rights; and

(2) The federal Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994, as amended in 1996, prohibits the delaying of permanent placement of children to find an ethnic match, allowing native Hawaiian children to be sent out of the state for permanent placement with non-Hawaiian households;

and

WHEREAS, in 2005, DHS reported in its "Child Abuse and Neglect Report" that over 40 percent of children harmed in Hawaii were Hawaiian or part Hawaiian; and

WHEREAS, the 2005 "Ka Huaka‘i Native Hawaiian Educational Assessment Report" (2005 Assessment Report) states that:

(1) Academic disparities are pronounced in rural regions with high concentrations of native Hawaiians; and

(2) Native Hawaiian students are being referred to special education at a more rapidly escalating rate (18.5 percent) than their non-Hawaiian peers;

and

WHEREAS, the Department of Education (DOE) reported that in 2005, 47 percent of native Hawaiian children in the fourth grade scored below the basic reading level, 27 percent scored below the basic math level, and 43 percent scored below the basic science level; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Health (DOH) reported that between 2001 and 2006, 57.2 percent of suicides were by Hawaiians or part Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, the 2005 Assessment Report states that native Hawaiian adolescents suffer higher rates of depression (34.5 percent versus 27.9 percent) and are more likely to attempt suicide (22.6 percent versus 20.0 percent) than their non-Hawaiian peers; and

WHEREAS, Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae (Protect and Honor Our Precious Children), a nonprofit organization, was organized to develop and operate state-of-the-art care facilities throughout the State of Hawaii for disadvantaged native Hawaiian and other needy children whose physical, emotional, mental, social, and educational well-being is threatened--children crucial to the preservation of the Na Kamali‘i O Hawaii Nei; and

WHEREAS, in 2004, the Legislature adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 189, recognizing the importance of this mission and supported Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae's efforts to develop state-of-the-art emergency care and learning facilities for endangered and disadvantaged children of Hawaiian ancestry; and

WHEREAS, Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae's care facilities have been designed to offer the needed protective and preventative measures for saving children, including native Hawaiian children who are victims of adult caregivers' abuse, neglect, and self-destruction; and

WHEREAS, Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae's care facilities, with the assistance of the native Hawaiian communities, will:

(1) Provide a wellness safe haven for at-risk native Hawaiian children;

(2) Promote health, nutrition, education, and cultural identity;

(3) Begin the healing journey in the children's short- or long-term care needs in the Hawaiian cultural hanai ohana style program without losing them to federal mandate requirements; and

(4) Preserve native Hawaiian children in their homeland for future native Hawaiian nation-building;

now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, that this body continues to express its support of Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae's efforts to establish state-of-the-art care facilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that DOE, DOH, and DHS are requested to apply its funds to assist Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae in the establishment of its care facilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Departments of Education, Health, Human Services, Land and Natural Resources, and Hawaiian Home Lands, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs are requested to assist Malama O Kamali‘i Makamae in acquiring suitable lands for the development of its care facilities; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Superintendant of the Board of Education, Director of Health, Director of Human Services, Chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Support for Malama O Kamali'i Makamae

THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	16
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII