STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2334

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2476

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2476 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DENTAL HYGIENISTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize licensed dental hygienists to perform preventative dental sealant screenings and apply dental sealants on individuals, under certain conditions, in a Department of Education school-based oral health program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Board of Dentistry, University of Hawaiʻi System, Department of Health, Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!, Hawaii Dental Hygienists' Association, Hawaii Dental Service, Hawaiʻi Oral Health Coalition, AlohaCare, Hawaii Dental Association, and forty-two individuals.

Your Committee finds that dental sealants applied to chewing surfaces of molars are the most effective preventative strategy for tooth decay. In the 2022-2023 school year, the Seal Away Decay program provided oral screenings to more than two thousand second grade students in sixty-eight schools on Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. Of the screened students, sixty percent received sealants and sixty-five students were referred to a dentist for urgent care. Additionally, the Hawaii Keiki: Healthy and Ready to Learn Program, a partnership between the Department of Education and the Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, places school nurses and health technicians throughout public schools to coordinate dental health services, including screenings and preventative sealant clinics. Your Committee further finds that providing dental sealants through school-based oral health programs is a cost-effective strategy to reach low-income children, who are at a higher risk of developing tooth decay. Therefore, this measure takes a proactive approach to childhood tooth decay by expanding and improving access to oral health care for Hawaii's keiki.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2476 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,

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MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair