STAND. COM. REP. NO.43

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1139

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1139 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FAMILY COURT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to increase the parent education surcharge from $35 to $50, and to repeal the $15 donation that respondents in matrimonial actions with minor children could be asked to make.

Your Committee received testimony supporting this measure from the Hawaii State Bar Association, Family Law Section, and a clinical social worker. The Judiciary supported the measure and proposed an amendment. Hawaii Moms and Dads 4Kids opposed the bill.

Your Committee finds that the parent education surcharge is used to fund the Kids First program. The Kids First program is a mandatory parent education program for divorcing parents who have minor children. The program was created because long-term research suggests that children who experience parental conflict over custody are at higher risk for mental problems, lower academic achievement, problematic peer relationships, and more frequent illnesses and accidents than children who grow up in an intact family. Children with such disturbances may later become adolescents who abuse alcohol and drugs and become sexually promiscuous.

Your Committee further finds that in order for the program to be financially self-sufficient, the $15 donation must be a requisite. Additionally, the program must be expanded to include the growing number of children from parents who have never married. Your Committee amended the bill at the request of the Judiciary to allow collection of the surcharge either at the time of or subsequent to the court's filing of the complaint or petition.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1139, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1139, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair