STAND. COM. REP. NO. 303

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 240

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Education and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 240 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require the Department of Health, in consultation with the University of Hawaii School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, to provide training and clinical direction to school health aides; and

     (2)  Repeal section 302A-708, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which requires the Department of Education to provide career pathways development and training opportunities to school health aides in the Department of Education's school health services field.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education; University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene; Community Children's Council of Hawaii; Special Education Advisory Council; and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments from the Hawaii Government Employees Association AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

     Your Committees find that there is an ongoing need for timely and appropriate training for school health aides.

     Your Committees note that the Department of Education and Department of Health have started a dialogue on training school health aides, and it is the hope of your Committees that they will continue to work together to come to an agreement on this important issue.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding language to require the Department of Education and the Department of Health to enter into a memorandum of understanding on the issue of training for school health aides;

     (2)  Requiring that a copy of the memorandum of understanding be provided to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014;

     (3)  Providing for the repeal of section 1, which requires the Department of Health, in consultation with the University of Hawaii School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, to provide training and clinical direction to school health aides, on June 30, 2014; and

     (4)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 240, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 240, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Health,

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

____________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair