STAND. COM. REP. NO. 613

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1120

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1120 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATE EMPLOYEE CHILD CARE FACILITIES AND SERVICES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require the State to provide state employees with child care facilities and services and permits the State to charge for the cost of the child care.

     The Hawaii Government Employees Association and Good Beginnings Alliance submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations submitted testimony in opposition.

     Your Committees find that a changing workforce has contributed to a shortage of infant and child care resources in the State.  In Hawaii, approximately seventy-seven thousand families with children under six years of age have parents in the labor force.  It is well documented that quality child care is an effective tool in supporting working families and helping keep parents in the workforce.  However, a lack of quality infant and child care can make it more difficult for parents to obtain employment, retain employment, and move into better jobs.  Employer supported child care is a cost-effective way to control labor costs and enhance worker productivity.

     It is your Committees' intent to encourage new strategies to try to deal with the increasing demand for child care in this State.  Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing section 2 of the measure to permit the Department of Human Services to establish a state employee child care pilot program to provide state employees with child care facilities and services;

     (2)  Requiring that the state employee child care pilot program:

         (A)  Make state facilities available for use as state employee child care facilities;

         (B)  Provide child care services to state employees during work hours at a cost that is commensurate with the average cost of child care facilities in the private sector; provided that private sector employees may also be permitted to enroll their children; and

         (C)  Comply with all applicable laws, rules, and certification requirements of the State;

     (3)  Permitting the Department of Human Services to contract with a private organization pursuant to chapter 103F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to administer the state employee child care pilot program;

     (4)  Changing the expending agency of the appropriation from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the Department of Human Services; and

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1120, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1120, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair