STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 532
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 1118
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1118 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NON-MEDICAL EXEMPTIONS TO IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Hawaiʻi State Council on Developmental Disabilities; American Academy of Pediatrics, Hawaiʻi Chapter; Hawaiʻi Pacific Health; Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute; American Atheists; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one member of the Kauai County Council; Hawaiian Islands Republican Women; Hawaii For Informed Consent; Yeshua Nation of Amnesty Coalition; Hawaii Federation of Republican Women; Christian Science Committee on Publication for Hawaii; National Vaccine Information Center; Say His Name Foundation; Hawaii Christian Coalition; Ka Ohana O Na Pua; Libertarian Party of Hawaii; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Education.
Your Committee finds that school entry immunization requirements have been shown to be effective in improving immunization coverage rates, thereby reducing disease incidence. High immunization rates are important at schools to protect medically fragile children, especially children who are unable to be immunized and must rely on their vaccinated peers to prevent the introduction of vaccine preventable diseases in schools.
Your Committee further finds that decreasing immunization coverage due to non-medical exemptions increases the risk for vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks that can be fatal to children. For the 2015–2016 school year in the State, the rate of non-medical immunization exemption was 2.5 percent. The rate of non-medical immunization exemption more than doubled to 5.3 percent for the 2023–2024 school year. The rate of non-medical exemptions varied by school with fifty-five of the three hundred eighty-two schools that reported for school year 2023-2024 having a non-medical immunization exemption rate greater than ten percent.
Your Committee believes that since the health and safety of the State's children are paramount, there is a compelling state interest in protecting the public against deadly diseases, especially considering an increasing trend in non-medical immunity exemptions, while honoring certain non-medical exemptions that previously have been approved. This measure will minimize exemptions from school immunization requirements to improve the health and safety of school-aged children in the State.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Clarifying that, for purposes of the state law relating to communicable diseases, a person may object in writing on the grounds that immunization conflicts with the person's bona fide religious tenets and practices;
(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; 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 Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1118, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1118, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |
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