2025 Session: Updating Hawaiʻi's Definition of "Neglect"

Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network (HCAN) is our state’s chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America. We are working on an initiative to differentiate economic security and poverty from "neglect." To get started, we are focused on updating our state’s definition of “neglect” this 2025 legislative session (HB239, SB1104). This is one step in the right direction to support families experiencing economic barriers with safety and well-being. 

Our state’s definition of “neglect” should clarify that economic hardship or poverty alone does not mean a child is unsafe or that a parent is unable to care for their child. Twenty-seven (27) states have already exempted poverty or income-related factors from their definition of child abuse and neglect, and a growing body of research shows improved outcomes for families when states separate poverty and neglect.

What does the research show? 

Many families face challenges meeting basic needs in our state. Ending the conflation of poverty with neglect while also increasing access to economic supports, investing in community resources, and addressing the root causes of poverty can help ensure families get the support and resources they need, in the communities where they live, without facing stigma.  

Learn more by checking out the research compiled by Chapin Hall and the State Policy Advocacy + Reform Center (SPARC):

 

What can we do? 

Let’s start by updating Hawaiʻi’s statutory definition of neglect and engage in a broader conversation about how to support the safety and caregiving needs of families facing economic hardship. 

In the long-run, we need policy changes that strengthen economic and concrete supports for parents and caregivers, remove barriers to existing public benefit programs, and invest in communities. When families have money and other basic needs, risk of child maltreatment is lowered and communities have less contact with the child welfare system. 

We should also focus on what mandated reporters and others can do to address family’s unmet needs and support parents facing economic insecurity instead of reporting them to Child Welfare Services when there is no additional reason to believe maltreatment is occurring.

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