STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2166

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3034

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 3034 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII CHILD WELFARE EDUCATION COLLABORATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $353,176 to restore the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration in order to assist with the recruitment and training of graduate students from the University of Hawaii Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work for child welfare positions at the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services; University of Hawaii System; National Association of Social Workers, Hawaii Chapter; Family Programs Hawaii; and eleven individuals.

     Your Committees find that the Department of Human Services is in serious need of experienced child welfare workers.  As of December 2013, child welfare services had sixty-four vacant positions, and the Department is concerned about an increasing shortage of experienced workers due to impending retirements.

     Your Committees further find that the University of Hawaii Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work and Department of Human Services have a history of collaboration and partnership in successfully recruiting and training social work students to work in the child welfare field in Hawaii.  Between 1998 and 2008, the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration was successful and produced one hundred graduates, twenty-five of which are still employed at the Department in child welfare services positions.

     Your Committees encourage the Legislature to consider funding the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration for a minimum of three years to ensure that child welfare workers are supported through the completion of their Master of Social Work program.  Funding for three years will support the full-time students who complete the program in two years and the part-time students who require three years to complete the program.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying the Legislature's understanding and intent that the minimum employment requirement for participants of the program, if restored pursuant to this measure, will be three years, rather than two years, after graduation; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3034, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3034, 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 Higher Education,

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair