Bill Text: HI SB1340 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Foster Care; Extend Age for Services; Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Program
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2013-07-09 - Act 252, 7/1/2013 (Gov. Msg. No. 1355). [SB1340 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2013-SB1340-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 299
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 1340
S.D. 1
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Seventh State Legislature
Regular Session of 2013
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1340 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOSTER CARE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow former foster care youths who are attending an institution of higher education as full-time students to stay in the foster care system until the age of twenty-three.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition and three individuals. Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services.
Your Committee finds that foster youth who are evicted at age eighteen often do not have the financial, emotional, or housing support from their biological family. A 2001 study to identify the transition needs of foster youth in Oahu and East Hawaii found that twenty percent of foster youth aged eighteen to twenty-four were homeless within a year and that an additional forty-three percent were at risk of becoming homeless.
Your Committee further finds that due to the unfortunate nature of their situation, many former foster youths who are attending an institution of higher education find it difficult to adjust and transition to life after being in the foster care system because they often lack a support system. Without family support or the resources to provide for the basic necessities in life, many of these former foster youths may not have the financial means to attend school. There is a need to support these former foster youths to ensure their success and transition into society and that providing foster care support to these former foster youths while attending school would enable them to focus on academic success and career development instead of worrying about housing, food, and other basic needs.
Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language from S.B. No. 1104 (Regular Session of 2013), which establishes the young adult voluntary foster care program to care for and supervise eligible foster youth until their twenty-first birthdays, and further amending the measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1340, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1340, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,
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____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair |
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