HB 241 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO CHILD CARE.

Summary

Establishes a child care classroom contracts pilot program to require the Department of Human Services to contract directly with child care center providers in licensed infant and toddler child care centers and group child care centers that meet certain criteria. Requires reports to the Legislature. Sunsets the pilot program on 6/30/2028. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House Passage

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 16, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

HB241 → HB241_HD1 · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to add a constitutional exemption preventing contracts with private educational institutions, reduced the number of required group child care centers per county from two to one, and significantly delayed the effective date of the program from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 3000. These changes clarify eligibility restrictions, adjust program requirements to match the new timeline, and set the pilot program to sunset on June 30, 2028.

Scope change

The bill now explicitly excludes private educational institutions from eligibility to avoid constitutional violations, while reducing the number of required group child care centers per county.

ELIGIBILITY

Added a provision stating that child care centers owned by, part of, or operated by private educational institutions are ineligible for contracts if it would violate the Hawaii State Constitution.

REQUIREMENT

Reduced the pilot program requirement from two licensed group child care centers per county to one licensed group child care center per county.

Replaced the previous clause allowing the department to contract with a service provider with new language requiring the department to monitor seat utilization and adjust contracts based on enrollment and performance.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date of the Act from July 1, 2025, to July 1, 3000, and updated the summary text to reflect this future date.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 13, 2025

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Pierick voting no (1) and Representative(s) Cochran, Kitagawa, Ward excused (3).

lower

Feb 13, 2025

Committee

Reported from EDN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 563), recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on EDN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 11 Ayes: Representative(s) Woodson, La Chica, Amato, Evslin, Garrett, Kapela, Kila, Olds, Sayama, Muraoka, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Feb 4, 2025

Committee

Reported from HSH (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 57) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to EDN.

lower

Jan 30, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on HSH recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 9 Ayes: Representative(s) Marten, Olds, Amato, Chun, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Takayama, Takenouchi, Alcos, Garcia; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to HSH, EDN, FIN, referral sheet 1

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 16, 2025

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

10 primary · 0 co-sponsors