STAND. COM. REP. NO.50

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 964

 

 

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.B. No. 964 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR TREATMENT SERVICES FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF INTRAFAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate $500,000 in each year of the fiscal biennium to provide treatment services for child victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse and their families who are not serviced by the Child Protective Services Program under the Department of Human Services.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Children's Justice Center under the Judiciary; the Friends of the Children's Justice Center; Child Welfare Services State Advisory Council; Catholic Charities Family Services; and Na Keiki Law Center, a program of Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that intrafamilial child sexual abuse is a traumatic event for families, with long-lasting effects on the child victim, siblings, and protective parents. Treatment services are essential to promote the healing and psychological health of children and families who have suffered the devastation of child sexual abuse. However, many families who are protective of the child victim, cannot access treatment or are provided with insufficient treatment to resolve the abusive incident, and protective families are not able to access treatment options available through the Child Protective Services Program.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 964 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair