001falling on the 3pm calendar joint human services and judiciary committee hearings present for human services is myself right here and laura and senator akasio and hopefully soon we will have the other two members and for judiciary uh carl rose's chair i said senator gaber and advice okay thank you very much okay so first up um before i go on i need to do housekeeping this meeting will include the following agendas 3 p.m joint with um judiciary 310 human services edu joint um this meeting is being streamed live on youtube in the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business at 305 pm tuesday april 5th in room 225 and via video content your audio will be muted and video disabled
002until shortly before it is your turn to testify each testify will have two minutes to testify if there's a technical glitch during your time to testify we would have um we may have to move on to the next person due to time constraints i'll be reading a list of individuals who submitted written testimony for each measure we apologize if the closed captioning does not accurately transcribe names if you're interested in reviewing the written testimony please go to the legislators website you will find a link on the status page for the measure we appreciate your understanding and remind you that the committee does have your testimony that i reviewed so i encourage you to use your time to either add additional comments or you can stand on your written testimony so first up we have scr
003133 urging the stat state commission on the status of women to work with the domestic violence action center the filipino chamber of commerce in hawaii and other chambers of commerce of hawaii as appropriate to develop and implement an outreach program aimed at informing domestic violence victims of available resources for assistance and we welcome senator lee to this hearing so first up we have nancy creedman in person for divac please my first visit we love having you i'm ecstatic about it thank you for uh the opportunity to work in the broad community as described in scr we need all the help we can get and we look forward to the opportunity to engage with the chambers of commerce that are already working in their communities so i'm available for any questions and of course i have
004worked for years with the commission on the status of women and that's another great opportunity that's presented by this uh scr okay thank you very much um next up we have tara jobola corollas hawaii state state commission and status of women and support please proceed chairs vice chairs members um i'll keep this brief we submitted support and i just wanted to flag that we do have some amendments after conferring with the community just to strengthen it we're um you know very uh much in support of this uh this proposal so thanks a lot okay thank you very much okay next up we have patricia mcmanaman in support hawaii's friends of civil rights is patricia available thank you very much um anybody else wishing to testify we have a number i will start calling out those
005who have provide written testimony as rose joaquin of fauw and support liza ryan gill hawaii coalition for immigrant rights and support angelina mercado hawaii state coalition against domestic violence and support al basha in support chantal tambia in support rose chirma and support edith in support carolyn wagon hildebrand and support rose bautista and support divina robillard and support ashley galakka in support anybody else on zoom or in person wishing to testify on scr133sr117 members any questions from human services okay judiciary any questions okay okay thank you very much we're moving on next up we have scr-225 sr21 requesting a department of human services to develop lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer plus specific training guidelines for intimate partner violence agencies that serve and assist lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer plus survivors okay first up we have no
006one having scheduled to testify those who have provided written testimony are hth behavioral health administration department of health providing comments department of human services state of hawaii providing comments mike galileo's senior testifying for rainbow family 808 and support angelina mercado hawaii state coalition against domestic violence and support albasha and support jen jenkins and support ke and support kai and support anybody else wishing to testify on scr sr218 on zoom or in person okay saying none there's no one for us to ask questions so i'm going to move on scr129 repressing the hawaii civil rights commission your lead sorry i don't care that much but we might as well do things right while we're doing them so scr 129 is uh request the civil rights commission to clarify claims within the scope of the individuals with
007disabilities education act first up is robin wurtzel for hawaii civil rights commission uh vice chair and members of the committee um i also want to thank your staff since the zoom link wasn't working and somebody just got me in here um jesse i believe so thank you so much the civil rights commission offered written comments um we are uh i am not clear on exactly what the resolution is requesting um act 164 from last year goes into effect in july so we have not yet seen any complaints um and we're not sure what we're going to see or um exactly how the interplay will work with the doe and cases that might be 504 cases in cases that might be idea the reso specifically asks us what cases within the individual disability education act we
008will be we will find jurisdiction and the answer is none because they are cases within idea are specifically exempted by statute so the reso is doesn't actually make that much sense to me in terms of what the report should include so we would ask for some clarification on that okay thank you next up is sean bacon for hawaii state department of education oh you're here the wrong place all the time good afternoon chair vice chair and members of the committee sean bacon interim assistant superintendent for office of talent management testifying on behalf of keith hayashi and the department of education the department stands on its written comments and is available to answer any questions thank you thank you next is linda allentown good afternoon i'm linda elento and thank you for the moment to um
009just to share some comments i know two minutes goes fast so you can cut me off if you need to anyway this is my son jason he's over here he's the reason why i'm here he's also the reason why this particular law had to be basically rewritten um anyway um this work tool just shared some good concerns um i think the biggest concern that i see even though i believe the statute was written correctly when it said claims if you heard ms wertzel said use the word cases cases under ide is not the same as a claim of disability discrimination that is what i believe is confusing here so i look forward to the hcrc being able to accept complaints i mean i have two lined up already with a parent just because we know
010they're being um not treated fairly under 504 and ada although idea would be to do a special education it has their own standards but let me just point out in the um what i see here in the resolution up at the top first paragraph or up towards the top it talks about the idea however the id does not cover many discrimination complaints brought by special education students actually many is not the word to be there as ms wurtzel said they don't take them because ida cases are not discrimination complaints at the end under where it says be it resolved um again this is another miscon this written kind of conception that i believe the doe has that the hawaii civil rights commission is requested to clarify the applicability of processes for resolving special ed claims
011of discrimination under the idea again discrimination is not even in the word idea and i looked at some of the testimony from last year with act 164 and specifically it was in the does testimony and one of the paragraphs that begins under idea students and families also have the option of filing the complaint externally with the usd office for civil rights so i can continue on and on and on with different reasons why i believe that there needs to be some clarification here just off the bat this the hcrc was developed or created by you guys for the body legislature 30 years ago um for 20 years they did not accept any complaints from students but they would anybody else in the state this is the population we're looking at in fairness to all students
01210 years ago i brought it to the commission's attention and yes it ended up in supreme court here in hawaii and everybody was surprised i believe because the issues that were brought up by me the issues that doe kept saying no the issue is a special ed matter it was not it came back to the 504 civil rights issue and um that's when the supreme court said well if the um agency already has 504 protections then they don't need protections under the civil rights commission so that's what 164 clarified and said yes even if they have 504 protections for people with disabilities students with disabilities then the 368-1.5 and 368. apply but one thing that's concerning to me is in the 368-11 talks about the program's activities that are state-funded those are the programs and
013activities covered but in the civil rights commission provided testimony last year for 164. they said two sentences one right after the other and in my opinion just listening to it and reading it they the first one or one of them is seems correct the other one does not and i'll finish with this one if i can find find it here this was in last year's testimony by the hawaii civil rights commission it says for the schools which kind of took off part of it it's referring to um schools which are covered by the ada that's a special education law as opposed to 504 protections for people students with disabilities it says this narrow exclusion for idea cases which is the statute of claims within the scope of the idea that's the purpose of this particular
014resolution as i read it this narrow exclusion for ida cases should not apply to other state programs and activities which do not fall under ida coverage this measure would grant hcrc jurisdiction over public schools for allegations of disability discrimination against students unrelated to the ida requirement of free appropriate free and appropriate public education such as the cases that fall under 504. there was one more there was actually another one that i wanted to point out but i didn't take a picture of it so i don't have access to it but it was the sentence before the one i just read that um again one of them i seemed right and the other one didn't but the free appropriate public education the standard of my ida the standard is appropriateness it's subjective it's based on appearance
015and a teacher's decision what a kid needs that's appropriate id or 504 has a different standard and it's actually it's written really clear in our 368 chapter what is discrimination what is disability discrimination that's what we're working with here but when i looked at even with the um committee reports there's three different descriptions on what is excluded in the jurisdiction one said over programs or activities that are covered by the ida that's what was concerning to me as well um okay excludes cases within the scope of the individuals or the ida from the jurisdiction of acrc and the last one was excludes cases within the scope of the ida from jurisdiction of the hcrc that's what made it or not that didn't make it again we're using the word cases but the statute said claims
016so what is the difference and how is the hcrc gonna interpret it so i appreciate your listening but that's my biggest concern can you guys you know we need your help you know if um for anybody else i guarantee you there's other kids like my kid who need the protection of this song we appreciate it okay thank you um then we have uh jason uh in support okay that's all the testifiers we have on scr 129. uh members any questions of your committee no i just want to announce that um senator miss alucho for human services is now present thank you uh so i do have a question for um mr linto and maybe for this works all at the same time here um so my understanding from the bill the bill that we passed
017last year forgotten the number is that hcrc will take hcrc has jurisdiction over education claims that do not fall under the idea is that correct ms okay i can't we can't hear you but i could read your lips sorry i said that's correct okay so so anything anything that comes that's an idea idea claim should come should be adjudicated by doe law okay um or what what claims do you think need to be brought the ones that are based on disability discrimination let me give you an example um there's an all school field trip meaning anybody can go if one child like my child necessarily happened more than once um was able to go but he was required to pay 200 extra dollars so he could have his own hotel room and other certain things
018and it took a lawyer to help me say that's discriminating has nothing to do with ida has nothing to do with the free appropriate public education but then if it doesn't have anything to do with ida idea then it goes to supply civil rights commission right well this is what the problem is when it comes to special education our doe and i'm going to say the hawaii civil rights commission as well they see any special and related um anything they see it as an idea issue go to special education and i'll give you the okay so let me just verify that with hcrc is that the way is that the way you view the claims that come out of special ed i mean are they idea claims are they another kind of claim well the
019claim that ms alente just um articulated personally i would see that as a 504 claim that would be within our jurisdiction i mean when ms alente says what we've been interpreting i i'm a little confused because we we don't have jurisdiction until july 1 2022. so we have not made any determination from the department maybe a department of education if you could come up to grab a chair there if you don't mind so is your interpretation the same as hcrcs i'm going to ask actually our director of our civil rights party is that the split i mean the fact that this new the new law that we passed last year hasn't gone into effect yet but uh once it does you what claims are you expecting to have to adjudicate at doe yeah did uh
020anything that has to do with idea and program services has remedies built into our current processes but if it comes to the example that she just you just mentioned that would be 504 discrimination which goes to hcrc yes okay so i guess that's what so why is what's why is there confusion i i was uncon i was not confused when i came into the hearing now then i became confused go ahead pull the mic around yeah i'm not as quick as answering but your office is actually i've called them multiple times over the last i'd say 15 years and um they are able to decide all the time can they help us or not but initially it's always be special ed go over there you need to go over there so so let's let's back
021up to now then before the new law goes into effect what what's the split right now do you do you guys does doe do anything other than the idea claims well we okay and is that going to change is that going to change on july 1st no you'll still be taking discrimination claims but if they don't want to deal with you a deal is there an exhaustion or remedies or anything where they have to go through you first you can go straight to hcrc you have to go to just to kind of undo the confusion the children who get special education under iba they have an iep that's their educational plan you might see accommodations listed this person needs a mate on field trips okay you're going to find it on the iep with this
022field trip after school going somewhere it might be considered extracurricular in fact this one case in point is the secondary student conference the one that you all provide every year it's in your law he came right before the pandemic that's not part but he doesn't need that for a free public education i go to due process hearing they're not going to look at it because first of all it's discrimination but it has to do with the idea because he's a special education under ida but was it required under fate free appropriate public education right that's when that's a discrimination sounds to me like that's something the d.o.u would take up the idp indicated that there need to be additional supports in all the presidential services if it's a program in service or the department then
023it would be it would be it would be uh because it would be okay which i'm sorry so to repeat myself that either you could take it up or she or anybody could go straight to hcrc currently i'm not sure all right thank you very much thank you very much for your time all right uh recess for decision making okay recalling for decision making the joint committee on human services and judiciary 3pm calendar um scr 133 sr117 cherish recommendation is to pass with amendments we are going to accept the domestic violence um amendments except for the implementation portion and well we just the first one we're going to accept if they mentioned three potential amendments we're going to accept the first amendment which is to create the task force among those people we are going
024to extend the deadline from 2023 to 2024. we're gonna um put in the committee report um the concern of vbac's limited resources and requests that they implement it within the resources that they have available and we're also going to put in the status of women's concerns in the committee report about filipino women being subject to domestic violence um more so than substantial domestic violence as stated in their testimony any comments questions concerns seeing them like share for your vote okay for the members of the committee on human services we're voting on the chair's recommendation to pass scr 133 and sr-117 with amendments cheers san bruno ventura aye vice chair votes aye senator casio aye senator mita lucia aye senator favela the recommendations on both resolutions have been adopted okay for jdc members same recommendation on
025scr 133 and sr117 questions or concerns without senator members passing with amendments chair rhodes aye vice chair goes i senator ocasio hi senator gabbard hi senator kim this is excuse senator lee all right senator favela all right chair recommendation adopted thanks okay so for scr two two five slash sr218 sheriff's recommendation is to pass with amendments we will accept sma's proposed amendment and dvax first proposed amendment which is to create the task force including state department health immigrant justice center legal hawaii state coalition against domestic violence in addition to hawaii commission on the status of women domestic violence action in the filipino chamber of commerce um again we're going to put in the committee report that we understand the vax limited resources and request that the implementation be within the resources that they have available
026um any comments questions concerns seeing that vice chair for the vote with all members of the community and human services president today uh we're voting on the recommendation to pass ser 225 and sr 218 with amendments any reservations or objections to the chair's recommendation hearing none the recommendation is adopted okay thank you uh members uh jdc members for scr 225 sr218 same recommendation questions or concerns signal advice sure members uh with six members present passing with amendments are there any reservations or no votes recommendation adopted hey thanks members next up is scr 129 this request the white civil rights commission to clarify claims within the scope of the individuals with disabilities education act so i'm going to defer this mr mrs linto specifically since you took the time to come down i think i hope
027the the bill that we passed last year that goes into effect in july will take care of the problem if it doesn't uh be happy to entertain assuming i'm still here i'll be happy to entertain any problems we might have next year but i believe that was the purpose of the pill was to try to straighten out that sort of uh uh just getting the jurisdictional lines correct so uh what we're differing okay thank you we are adjourned for the joint committee hearing on with jdc calling the joint committee on human services and education 310 calendar first up is scr one slash sr5 urging department of education to deploy and implement a program to recruit and employ qualified blind persons to serve as orientation and mobility instructors and in other positions as teachers of visually
028impaired students but before we go on i just want to make sure that everyone is aware of the members we have here for human services we have myself i'm senator missalucia and senator favela and for education we have [Music] myself senator kidani and my vice chair is in another hearing and uh senator senator kanuha and senator pavel here okay who are also supposed to be in another meeting so please don't okay so first up we have um james gashel who has been very patiently waiting his turn testifying for national federation of the blind of hawaii please proceed thank you very much senators chairs vice chairs senators um you know it won't take very long this bill this resolution actually passed in the resolution form in the house and senate last year but i guess the
029clock just ran out on consideration final consideration of the concurrent resolution we hope it crosses the finish line this year it it's not going to make a law but it will make an important statement of the legislature's faith and understanding and the innate abilities of blind people to teach other blind people i mean who's better at teaching a blind person how to go from point a or to point b me or you i think i think i know so you can do some of that but so can i and and so blind people have the ability to do this the education department needs to begin to believe in us with this resolution hopefully we'll have discussions and get there we didn't hear from them as a result of the reso versions passing hopefully we will
030when the concurrent resolutions pass mahalo for your consideration okay thank you very much next up we have the farmhuman services dvr providing comments on zoom please aloha chairs vice chairs members of both committees i'm lea diaz representing department of human services the department stands on its written comments and i'm available for any questions thank you okay thank you very much next up we have donald sakamoto in support are you president donald sakamoto not president chair okay um what else we we have decap in support for the shasta hawaii state committee of blind vendors and support brandon young and support kimi owen akane and support jacqueline boris and support tabitha mitchell and support lenny ebisupani and support alice talbot and support melissa gerber and support and for the sr version um same people except we also
031have katie kind in support virgil senate in support um we have academy for certification of vision rehabilitation and education for professionals providing comments sabbath and michelin support local bureaus and support lending ibis accounting support from support and melissa gerber in support questions anybody else pushing testify on scr1 sr5 seeing the members any questions okay i i just have one question mr gashel since you're the only one here present testify did you see the academy for certification of vision rehabilitation and education professionals written testimony no i did not see it okay basically um they just want to remove the two paragraphs whereas the com certification focuses on vision-centered orientation and mobility services but does not focus on the structure discovery approach and the second one they want to remove is whereas a structured discovery approach emphasizes
032the employment of blind instructors whereas the vision center orientation and mobility approach emphasize the employment of non-blind instructors resulting in diminished employment opportunities for qualified blind persons as instructors in department of education programs um do you have any problems with removing those two paragraphs well i do in that and we do in that that's at the heart of the problem so if you take those statements out the resolution means a lot less okay okay thank you very much um any other comments questions concerns saying um can we just go to the decision making [Music] yeah okay um and i think this one has is this one that tech amendments yeah we have second amendments yeah okay we have tech amendments okay um we're just gonna go on to directly into decision making chairs recommendation is
033to pass with tech amendments um any comments questions and concerns with the sma amendment members we are voting on scr1 uh as well as scr5 sr5 and uh chair recommends password amendments chair votes i vice chair ihara is excused uh senator akasho this excuse senator misolucha votsai senator favela chair with three votes your recommendations adopted and for the committee on education uh recommendation is to pass with amendments scr1 and sr5 um remember for the vote share both side chair votes i on scr1 and sr5 senator kim is excused senator de la cruz is excused uh i vote eye senator favela sure you have three eyes recommendations adopted thank you we have returned thank you very much you