STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1580

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: S.B. No. 1044

S.D. 2

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health & Homelessness, to which was referred S.B. No. 1044, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to hire complex-based behavioral health specialists for the State's rural public schools.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Opportunity Youth Action Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawai‘i Association of School Psychologists.

Your Committee finds that suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for children between the ages of ten and fourteen, and the leading cause of death for young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. According to the Department of Health, between 2005 and 2013 up to twenty percent of all high school-aged children in the State had suicidal ideation. Your Committee recognizes that these rates demonstrate the need for funding to hire additional specialists to provide mental health services in the State's rural schools.

Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that the behavioral health specialists hired by school complexes must be licensed behavioral health specialists.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1044, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1044, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health & Homelessness,

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair