STAND. COM. REP. NO.1009

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.C.R. No. 12

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 12 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A TASK FORCE ON GRADUATED PARENTING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to convene a task force to develop a plan for graduated parenting in the public schools.

Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Department of Education and the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that there is a need to provide a continuum of parenting education and support to parents as their children mature. The Department of Education testified that it currently offers a variety of programs and workshops to assist parents in supporting their children to succeed in school, including the Parent-Community Networking Programs and the Community School for Adults. In addition, the Families for R.E.A.L. (Resources for Early Access to Learning) program provides parenting skills training for parents with children from zero to five years of age at three sites statewide. Other parenting programs, such as the Parent Empowerment Initiative, Loving Solutions, and the Parent Project, are designed for difficult-to-raise children and adolescents. The Department of Education testified that in 2001, over 10,000 parent workshops and activities were conducted for 1,732,292 participants. Despite this apparent plethora of education and training for parents, your Committee finds that there is no widely available program that teaches child development and developmentally appropriate parenting skills relative to a child's stage of development. Your Committee believes that establishing this task force is the necessary first step in providing such training.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 12 and recommends its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair