STAND. COM. REP. NO. 745

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1340

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1340, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOSTER CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Program to provide eligible foster care services for youth who are eighteen or older until the age of twenty-one years.

 

     Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Judiciary, the Department of Human Services, Family Programs Hawaii, Hawaii Youth Services Network, EPIC Ohana, and twenty-three individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that many foster youth lose their support systems after reaching the age of eighteen.  Many of them are not prepared for the transition into adulthood and therefore are more prone to homelessness and substance abuse and are less likely to graduate from high school or attend a higher learning institution.  Studies have shown that young adults who continue to receive foster care services until the age of twenty-one are more likely to succeed in a positive transition into adulthood compared to young adults who stop receiving support services at the age of eighteen.  Accordingly, your Committees further find that providing support services for foster youths until the age of twenty-one is necessary to ensure the health, safety, and general welfare of the youth in the State.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Clarifying that the court shall set a periodic review to be held within one hundred eighty days after the signing of the voluntary care agreement;

 

(2)  Moving substantive language in the definition of "party" to a new subsection in the section pertaining to court proceedings;

 

(3)  Deleting a redundant provision relating to venue and re-designating the remaining sections accordingly;

 

(4)  Moving the section regarding the liability of the department to the end of the new part, to allow for a more logical flow of the sections, and re-designating the remaining sections accordingly;

 

(5)  Requiring the Department of Human Services to submit an annual report to the Legislature regarding the status, efficacy, and any other relevant information regarding the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Program, twenty days prior to the convening of each regular legislative session;

 

(6)  Making unspecified appropriations to the Department of Human Services for child protective services for fiscal years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015;

 

(7)  Making unspecified appropriations to the Department of Human Services for child protective services payments for fiscal years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015;

 

(8)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

 

(9)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1340, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1340, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary and Labor,

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair