STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2195

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2368

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 Education and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2368 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Education to:

(A) Establish and implement a program to educate public school students on sexual abuse prevention through age appropriate curricula; and

(B) Submit reports to the Legislature on the status of the implementation of and nature of the child sexual abuse prevention education program; and

(2) Appropriate funds for the implementation of the child sexual abuse prevention education program.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association; The Sex Abuse Treatment Center; Hawaii Youth Services Network; Hawaii Children's Action Network; IMUAlliance; Parents and Children Together; Special Education Advisory Council; Mental Health America of Hawai‘i; Domestic Violence Action Center; Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii; YWCA O‘ahu; Children's Alliance of Hawaii, Inc.; Bare Feet Studios, LLC; UNITE; and nine individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Education.

Your Committees find that sexual abuse remains a serious and ongoing threat to the safety, health, and well-being of children and young people in the State. Although programs and Department of Education-approved curricula currently exist in the State, implementation is not consistent system wide and resources for the provision of training and education are limited. Therefore, implementing and requiring resources for a regular, consistent sexual abuse prevention education program across the entire public school system will help to ensure that students are educated in sexual abuse prevention and teachers and staff receive sufficient training on talking to students about child sexual abuse prevention, the effects of child sexual abuse on children, handling sexual abuse disclosures, and mandated reporting.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language that requires the Board of Education to adopt Board policies to effectuate the sexual abuse prevention education program and for the department of education to implement such policies; 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 Education and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2368, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2368, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Labor,

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair