STAND. COM. REP. NO. 47

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 400

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 400 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require child care facilities, family child care homes, group child care centers, group child care homes, and infant and toddler child care centers that care for children one year of age or younger to develop, maintain, and implement safe sleep policies to prevent sudden unexpected infant deaths and sudden infant death syndrome.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Child and Family Service, Malama Family Recover Center, March of Dimes, and seven individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committees find that sudden unexpected infant death is a broad term that refers to the sudden death of an infant less than one year of age where the specific cause of death is not immediately obvious prior to investigation.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 4,500 sudden unexpected infant deaths occur in the United States every year.  The specific cause of death may include but not be limited to sudden infant death syndrome, infection, accidental suffocation, poisoning or overdose, or metabolic disorders.  Sudden infant death syndrome, the sudden death of an infant less than one year of age where the death cannot be explained even after a thorough investigation is conducted, accounts for half of the sudden unexpected infant deaths that occur in the United States every year and is the leading cause of death among infants one year of age or younger.

Your Committees further find that sudden unexpected infant deaths and sudden infant death syndrome are preventable through safe sleep policies that address causes of death that are associated with sudden unexpected infant deaths, such as accidental suffocation, and incorporate elements of the Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Initiative.  However, Hawaii is one of nine states that do not regulate the proper sleep positions of infants and toddlers under the care of child care centers or family care homes.

     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. 400 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Health,

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair