Bill Text: HI SB2301 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Child Custody; Grandparent Visitation

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-09 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB2301 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2301-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2070

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2301

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2301 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILD VISITATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Permit the family court to award reasonable visitation rights to grandparents if the denial of visitation would cause significant demonstrable harm to the child;

 

     (2)  Establish a rebuttable presumption that visitation decisions made by a parent are in the best interests of the child; and

 

     (3)  Identify factors the court shall consider in awarding visitation rights to a grandparent.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Family Law Section, Hawaii State Bar Association; and two individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that innumerable children enjoy loving and beneficial relationships with grandparents who contribute to the children's experiences and establish a sense of familial intimacy.  Grandparents that offer a child a comforting, safe, and secure haven should be able to visit their grandchildren.

 

     Your Committee also finds that legal issues regarding grandparents' visitation rights in Hawaii are currently unresolved.  In 2007, the Hawaii Supreme Court struck down section 571-46.3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, establishing grandparents' visitation rights, and noted that legislative action was necessary to correct the statute's unconstitutional provision (Doe v. Doe, 116 Hawaii 323, 336 (2007)).

 

     Your Committee further finds that as the measure is currently drafted, the question still remains whether, and under what standards, the State can override a parent's determination regarding visitation by a grandparent.  This measure, as currently drafted, does not answer this question or include such standards and may be subject to constitutional scrutiny for failure to include necessary deference to a parent's decision that is in line with that parent's constitutional rights.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to ensure further discussion; and

 

     (2)  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. 2301, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2301, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

		____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair