STAND. COM. REP. NO.452

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 97

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Education and Human Services and Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 97 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY CHILDHOOD,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to provide early childhood screenings in psychological and physiological development for children who reach the age of three.

Chaminade University and several individuals testified in support of this bill. The Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Education, and Good Beginnings Alliance supported the intent of this bill.

Your Committees find that early childhood screenings provide a means by which many developmental disorders or delays and psychosocial problems can be detected and subsequently treated. Early intervention into these types of problems can greatly increase a child's chance of overcoming them. Early detection and intervention can also mean a significant amount of monetary savings to the family of a child with developmental or psychosocial problems, as well as to the public who often ends up subsidizing these problems as they are allowed to develop and worsen later in life.

Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended this bill by:

(1) Specifying that DOH shall be the lead agency in the administration of the screening and certification process for early childhood screenings; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style and clarity.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Human Services and Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 97, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 97, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Human Services and Housing and Health,

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MICHAEL P. KAHIKINA, Chair

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KEN ITO, Chair

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DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair