STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1057-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2822

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2822, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ASTHMA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Education to offer optional asthma education instruction to students and to require teachers and other department employees to obtain asthma training.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Disability and Communication Access Board, American Lung Association in Hawaii, AlohaCare, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, Hawai‘i Public Health Association, Hawai‘i Public Health Institute, Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!, and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Education and Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that every year, over five thousand people in Hawaii visit emergency rooms due to asthma and another one thousand five hundred are hospitalized. Infants and very young children make up the majority of asthma-related medical emergencies and hospitalizations. Although the asthma mortality rate has declined over the past ten years, there was an average of twenty-two deaths per year from asthma in Hawaii between 2013 and 2015.

Your Committee further finds that published research funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the Journal of School Health has shown that students who engage in school-based asthma education experienced significantly fewer days with activity limitations and significantly fewer nights of sleep disturbance after participation in the intervention. This measure seeks to introduce asthma education instruction to Hawaii's students and to provide training to teachers and other Department of Education employees to ensure students with asthma are able to thrive in all environments.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing, rather than requiring, the Department of Education to offer optional asthma education to students and provide asthma training to teachers and other department employees who interact with students;

(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 2050; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2822, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2822, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness.

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

____________________________

JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair