STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1750

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 99

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, Human Services, and Education, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 99 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, AND DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO CONVENE AN INTERDEPARTMENTAL WORKING GROUP TO ADDRESS THE LACK OF CONSOLIDATED, CONSISTENT HEALTH SCREENING PROGRAMS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN IN THE STATE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, and Department of Education to convene an interdepartmental working group to address the lack of consolidated, consistent health screening programs in public schools for children in the State.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Department of Human Services, University of Hawai‘i System, Project Vision Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Your Committees find that chronic absenteeism, poor health, and delayed or limited access to health care and preventive health services continue to hinder students' academic success. A significant gap in the current Hawaii health care system exists for effective awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of common health conditions for school-aged children, such as vision, oral, or behavioral health issues. School based health programs and services provided to public school children through a network of school-community partnerships are an effective means to screen school aged children for common health issues and achieve better health outcomes for Hawaii's public school students. The Departments of Health and Human Services have already identified the extent of services provided within each department that are targeted to public school children and the need to coordinate internal departmental activity and cross-departmental efforts to develop sustainable school based health services, and your Committees find that this measure continues these efforts.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the Department of Health is requested to convene the working group;

(2) Amending the membership of the working group to include the Hawaii Lions Foundation;

(3) Clarifying that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to assist only with finalizing the working group's report and drafting proposed legislation;

(4) Requesting the working group to submit its draft report to the Legislative Reference Bureau no later than September 1, 2019;

(5) Amending its title to reflect its amended purpose; and

(6) 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 Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, Human Services, and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 99, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 99, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________ RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair	________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair
	________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair