Report Title:

Blue Print for Change; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds for the Blue Print for Change program to fund diversion services and child protective services. (HB240 HD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

240

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

H.D. 1

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 that remove the risk of child abuse from within the family, instead of 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 and an overwhelming majority of these families experience 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 the blueprint for change task force, a child welfare services reform task force charged with 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.

In 1996, the legislature enacted Act 302, which created "neighborhood places" sites around the State allowing professionals to work with families identified by the child welfare system or by community members as at-risk for child abuse and neglect. It is through the neighborhood places sites that families are provided needed services before their rising risk level results in the need for more costly intervention efforts within the child welfare system.

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

In 1999, limited start-up funds were provided by private agencies and the federal government 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 finds that without 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 $1 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 the establishment of additional sites for neighborhood places.

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

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003.