STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3010

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2109

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Education and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 2109, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish and fund an evidence-based physical-activity and nutritional-education program within the Department of Education's after-school plus program (A+ program).

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Department of Human Services, Hui for Excellence in Education, Kahoomiki, Afterschool Alliance, and The SPARK Programs.

 

     Your Committees find that for the past decade, an evidence-based physical-activity and nutritional-education program called "Fun 5" has been operating successfully in nearly all elementary schools statewide as an integral part of the A+ program.  Fun 5 provides training for all A+ program group leaders, supplies manuals and playground equipment, and provides hands-on instruction for physically active games and nutritional enlightenment.

 

     Your Committees further find that Fun 5, which for many of its participants is the only organized physical activity that they experience in a day, has shown positive results in boosting the children's level of physical activity, reducing their rate of obesity, and increasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables.  These achievements are accomplished through a hands-on and enjoyable program that promotes five servings of fruits and vegetables per day and at least thirty minutes of active physical exercise five days per week.

 

     Your Committees note that a grant-in-aid is also being explored as a means of funding the evidence-based physical-activity and nutritional-education program.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Establishing the evidence-based physical-activity and nutritional-education program as a five-year pilot program rather than establishing the program in statute; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2109, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2109, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Human Services,

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 

____________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair