STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3788

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.C.R. No. 236

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 236, H.D. 1, entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT A CURRICULUM IN HAWAII PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAT TEACHES STUDENTS TO PERFORM CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION AND TO IDENTIFY SYMPTOMS OF A STROKE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request that the Department of Education design and implement a curriculum in Hawaii public schools that teaches students to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to identify symptoms of a stroke.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Health Systems, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and four individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that every year, Hawaii emergency medical services teams treat nearly one thousand one hundred cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, with only nine percent of these victims surviving. However, studies have found that adults suffering from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a bystander were more likely to survive than those who did not receive any type of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Furthermore, thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation training as a high school graduation requirement and at least seventy-five percent of public high school students in the United States that are graduating this year will have learned lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation in their schools.

Your Committee further finds that strokes are the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States and a major cause of severe, lifelong disability. Therefore, learning the warning signs of a stroke is essential to minimizing the consequences of this potentially life-threatening event.

This measure requests that the Department of Education provide students with these life saving skills as part of their high school education.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 236, H.D. 1, and recommends its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

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MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair