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HB1382
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.B. NO.
1382
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating
to child welfare services
.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
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SECTION
1.
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The legislature finds that the malama
ohana working group established by Act 86, Session Laws of Hawaii 2023, was
tasked with recommending transformative changes to the State's existing child
welfare system.
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For fifteen months,
seventeen members of the working group representing those serving youth, as
well as youth, families, and community members throughout the State, opened
their hearts and listened deeply to the stories of lived experience in the
child welfare system.
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They worked to
develop recommendations to establish a child welfare system that is
trauma-informed, sustains a community-based partnership, and responds to the
needs of children and families in the system and the community.
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The result of this work was a powerful vision
for transforming how Hawaii supports families and protects children.
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Among the
many recommendations to move toward this vision was to strengthen the capacity
of the child welfare services branch to manage cases that are complicated by
domestic violence experienced by a parent or children in the family.
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Where there is domestic violence, the child
welfare services system must differentiate between parents who are
collaborating with the system from those using the system to punish or continue
abusing their partner.
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The legislature
further finds that child welfare services social workers support and advocate
for families and children experiencing domestic violence through counseling, as
well as connecting clients with legal and community resources that support
safety and stability.
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One such resource
is provided through a one-year contract between the department of human
services and Domestic Violence Services for Families, a non-profit that provides
referred clients with individual and group education, counseling, safety and
service plans, supervised visitation, parenting skills, and temporary restraining
order assistance, if needed.
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In 2024, the
child welfare services branch received approximately five hundred one reports
involving children experiencing domestic violence, with one hundred eight of
these reports identifying confirmed child victims.
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To assist the child welfare services branch
with better detecting and servicing the growing number of cases of domestic
violence, three new initiatives will need to be implemented.
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The first
initiative will be achieved through specialized comprehensive domestic violence
training for all child welfare services branch staff by function of each
different type of staff:
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intake,
assessment, case management, and permanency.
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Intake and case management staff will be
trained to do universal screening to measure the level of exposure to and involvement
in violence in the home and community, as well as other risk factors.
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Assessment and permanency social workers will
be trained to manage domestic violence cases with skills in assessing child and
family needs, creating safety plans, gathering witness declarations, and
requesting medical records.
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The second
initiative is to create a tracking system to monitor identified domestic
violence cases and report on the numbers, what specialized services were
offered and used, and the dispositions of the cases.
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This will help ensure domestic violence cases
are being monitored, identify patterns of behavior that may be used to predict
risk, and provide data to inform policies for effective service delivery.
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The third initiative
is to have automatic referral of domestic violence identified cases to conduct
joint case planning with a non-profit specialist in domestic violence.
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The specialists should, wherever possible, be
located on-site at the child welfare services branch offices to be more of a
presence and to work with the staff right when they are needed.
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The collaborative work will build systemic
capacity within the child welfare workforce to investigate domestic violence
and to support and engage with families during the child welfare services
intervention.
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The
purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for the department of human
services to contract with a non-profit specializing in domestic violence to
provide training and staff to be housed on-site in child welfare services
branch offices to support all aspects of screening for and addressing domestic
violence within a case.
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SECTION
2.
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There is appropriated out of the
general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of
$ or so much
thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2025-2026 and the same sum or so
much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2026-2027 for the department
of human services to contract with a non-profit specializing in domestic
violence to provide training and staff to be housed on-site in child welfare
services branch offices to support all aspects of screening for and addressing
domestic violence within a case.
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The sums
appropriated shall be expended by the department
of human services for the purposes of this Act.
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SECTION 3.
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This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025.
INTRODUCED BY:
_____________________________
Report Title:
Department
of Human Services; Child Welfare Services; Domestic Violence; Training;
Appropriation
Description:
Appropriates funds for the Department of Human Services to
contract with a non-profit specializing in domestic violence to provide
training and staff to be housed on-site in Child Welfare Services Branch
offices to support all aspects of screening for and addressing domestic
violence within a case.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.