STAND. COM. REP. NO 89

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1221

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Education and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1221 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Education to provide care at the public schools to students with diabetes according to their medical management plans.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, American Diabetes Association, and forty-eight individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Education and State Public Charter School Commission.

     Your Committees find that diabetes management is a constant concern for students with diabetes.  Testing, injections, medication, and measures to raise or lower blood sugar are all daily tasks for anyone with diabetes.  The school environment and rules can make diabetes management even more onerous for students.

     Your Committees further find that trained staff in every school that has at least one student with diabetes enrolled is necessary to assist students with diabetes to carry out their medical management plans.  Requiring schools to be prepared to help students with diabetes will make school safer for those students and enable them to more fully participate in school functions.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by 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 Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1221, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1221, 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

____________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair