STAND. COM. REP. NO. 124

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1023

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1023 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $250,000 for the restoration of the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration between the Child Welfare Services Branch of the Department of Human Services and the University of Hawaii Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System, Department of Human Services, Blueprint for Change, Family Programs Hawaii, and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that in upcoming years, the Department of Human Services will face a serious shortage of experienced child welfare services workers and leaders.  Your Committee further finds 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 whom are still employed at the Department in child welfare services positions.  Your Committee believes that restoring the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration will help build a workforce of highly qualified social workers who will increase the level of child welfare services for families in Hawaii.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Appropriating the funds for the Hawaii Child Welfare Education Collaboration to the Department of Human Services instead of the University of Hawaii; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1023, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1023, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair