STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2202

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2089

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2089 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTHY START,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to exempt the Healthy Start program from the state budget allotment system and to establish the Healthy Start program in statute.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the University of Hawaii, Child & Family Service, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Hawaii Section, and Parents and Children Together.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Budget and Finance.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committees find that because higher learning is dependent upon the framework developed in the brain at a very young age, it is important to ensure that children who are vulnerable to impaired brain growth through obstacles in early childhood development have access to services.  Your Committees also find that the cognitive brain development for children starts at a very young age, and more complex learning is built upon what is developed when they are young.  When children are neglected or abused, their brain's architecture becomes vulnerable to damage, which leads to later problems with higher learning.

     Your Committees further find that the costs of neglecting early intervention will be costlier in the future, and that it is essential to avert or minimize toxic stresses that cause long-term damage to children.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting the provisions that exempt the Healthy Start program from the allotment system and inserting provisions that require the Department of Health to provide comprehensive perinatal screenings.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2089, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2089, 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 Health,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair