Report Title:

Child Protective Services; Blue Print for Change; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds for DHS's Blue Print for Change program to fund diversion services and child protective services.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

240

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE PROJECT.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the State needs to continue to fund child abuse prevention and diversion services in order to remove the risk of child abuse within the family rather than removing the child from the family. The rate of child abuse and neglect cases continues to rise dramatically in both numbers and severity of cases with an overwhelming majority of these families having problems with substance abuse, mental health issues, domestic violence, and poverty.

In response to the need for child welfare reform, Senate Concurrent Resolution 89, 1994, created a child welfare services reform task force, known as the blueprint for change task force, for the purpose of developing a blueprint for reform in child protective services. The task force found, among other things, a need to provide coordinated and comprehensive community-based services to families at-risk for child abuse and neglect. As a result of the work of the blueprint for change task force, the legislature enacted Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii 1996, to create the "neighborhood places" to establish sites around the State to allow professionals to work with families identified by the child welfare system or by community members as families at-risk for child abuse and neglect. It is through the neighborhood places sites that families can be provided needed services before the risk level rises to the point of more costly intervention efforts within the child welfare system.

The overall average cost of working with the blueprint for change neighborhood place is approximately $300 per family. The average cost of a family entering the child welfare system is estimated conservatively at over $20,000 per family member.

In 1999, limited start-up funds were provided by private agencies and the federal government under Title 1VB to initiate a pilot project in Kona. Since opening its doors three years ago, the Neighborhood Place of Kona has served as a powerful example of the success of community partnerships for child protection. During fiscal year 2002, the Neighborhood Place of Kona was able to serve over five hundred families, preventing and diverting these families away from the much more costly child welfare system.

In 2002, the blueprint for change program ended its pilot project and expanded the neighborhood place network to communities on the Waianae coast, central Kalihi, and the Puna district on the Big Island.

The legislature further finds that without the continued funding for the blueprint for change project, the neighborhood places program would be unable to continue to carry out important system reform to assist at-risk families.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for the blueprint for change project, existing neighborhood places, and additional sites as funding allows.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $645,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for fiscal year 2003-2004, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for fiscal year 2004-2005, for the delivery of diversion services and child protective services to target families, including establishment of additional sites for neighborhood places.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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