STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2287

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2590

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2590 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILD PROTECTION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to give preference to allowing a child who has been or is at risk of being abused to remain in a safe family home, and to require the perpetrator of the abuse to leave the home, in certain cases of reported or suspected child abuse or neglect.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

     Your Committees find that in the case of child abuse, it is important to ensure continuity and consistency for a child who might otherwise need out-of-home placement.  This measure will offer an alternative to a child's placement in out-of-home care, such as foster care, that may be viable under certain circumstances.

     Your Committees note that according to the Department of the Attorney General's testimony, there already exists a test for the court to determine whether a child should be left in or returned to the family home – whether it is more probable than not that the family home is a safe family home with the assistance of a service plan.  This measure creates a different test – whether it is more likely than not that a child will be safe from harm in the family home.  Rather than creating two different tests and inserting the preference throughout the entire sequence of decisions by the Department of Human Services that lead to the court's determination of placement of a child, your Committees find that the purposes of this measure may be better effectuated by inserting the preference for allowing a child to remain in a safe family home within the existing statutes that describe the court's considerations in determining whether to place a child in the family home or in foster care.

     Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly by:

     (1)  Deleting sections 1 to 5 of the measure;

     (2)  Inserting language that creates a preference for the removal of the perpetrator from the family home, rather than the child, as described in section 587A‑26(c)(2)(B), Hawaii Revised Statutes, throughout various court proceedings, including the return hearing, periodic review hearing, permanency hearing, and issuing of the protective order, which makes the language consistent throughout chapter 587A, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     (3)  Inserting language that places the burden on the child's family to establish that it is in a child's best interest to remove the child, rather than the alleged or potential perpetrator, from the family home.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2590, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2590, 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 Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair