STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3599

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2528

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2528, H.D. 1, 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:

(1) Expand criminal history checks to adult relatives who provide care for a child whose family receives child care subsidies from the Department of Human Services in a regulated child care setting;

(2) Clarify the release of investigation information to the public;

(3) Clarify that the child care licensing program may share information and cooperate with child protective services and law enforcement on investigations; and

(4) Clarify that the Department of Human Services may take administrative action, judicial action, or both, to enforce child care licensing provisions and increase penalties by making them apply on a daily basis.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services and two individuals.

Your Committees find that parents and guardians rely on child care providers to ensure the safety and well-being of their child. However, recent events involving injuries and deaths have revealed the need for the Department of Human Services to enforce transparency measures for the safety of children in certain child care settings. Your Committees further find that the Department of Human Services already conducts comprehensive background checks of persons who receive a child care subsidy. This measure expands those checks to relatives who may also provide care for such children, increases transparency in investigations once disclosure can no longer affect the outcome of legal proceedings, and provides additional tools to the Department to enforce violations quickly and with increased penalties to more efficiently stop, deter, and prevent persons from engaging in illegal child care.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2525, to encourage further discussion; 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 Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2528, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2528, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair