HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.155           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                         HOUSE  RESOLUTION
  REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES TO LIGHTEN THE
    BURDEN ON CERTAIN NONPROFIT CHILD PLACEMENT AGENCIES.
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 4          WHEREAS, children are a precious resource, and the State
 5   takes seriously its responsibility to oversee child placing
 6   organizations and institutions and foster homes; and
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 8          WHEREAS, however, sometimes regulation can lead to
 9   inadvertent overregulation: while most child placing
10   organizations are for-profit institutions, some are nonprofits
11   with volunteer staff, who do their work for the children on a
12   shoestring budget; and
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14          WHEREAS, state administrative rules require for-profits
15   and nonprofits alike to meet the same standards of character
16   and quality, and also the same financial requirement of an
17   annual or biennial audit, which is a severe hardship on
18   nonprofit child placing agencies; and
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20          WHEREAS, if the Department of Human Services could
21   lighten the burden on these nonprofit child placement agencies,
22   it would permit these agencies to better serve the residents of
23   this State; now, therefore,
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25          BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
26   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
27   of 1999, that the Department of Human Services is requested to
28   do all that it can to minimize the burden of financial audits
29   on nonprofit child placement agencies; and
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31          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this
32   Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Human Services.
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36                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________