STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2204

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2872

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2872 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REQUIREMENTS FOR CHILD CARE PROVIDERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Human Services to establish minimum health and safety requirements for child care providers, including authorization of background checks on applicants, household members, employees, and prospective employees of licensed and registered child care homes and facilities.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services and Hawaii Children's Action Network.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest.

     Your Committees find that this measure will align state law with the requirements of Public Law 113-186, enacted in November 2014, which makes significant changes to Child Care and Development Block Grant requirements to better protect children served under the grant.  The Department of Human Services' Child Care Connect Hawaii child care subsidy program is federally funded through the grant, and Hawaii received a grant allocation of over $20,000,000 in fiscal year 2015.  Failure to pass this measure would jeopardize the grant award, as the Department of Human Services will lack the authority to implement the requirements of Public Law 113-186.

     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 Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2872, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2872, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

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

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair