Urging All State Departments To Partner With The Office Of Wellness And Resilience For Secure And Appropriate Data Sharing Agreements.
Summary
SCR135 is a Senate Concurrent Resolution urging all state departments to work with the Office of Wellness and Resilience to establish secure and appropriate data-sharing agreements. The resolution is aimed at improving the Office’s ability to analyze community needs, develop trauma-informed strategies, and support effective aid programs by combining information that is currently spread across separate state agencies.
The measure references the Office of Wellness and Resilience’s statutory role under Act 291 (Session Laws of Hawaii 2022), which required the creation of a social determinants of health electronic dashboard. It notes that the Office launched the Quality of Life and Well-Being Dashboard in December 2024 and that the dashboard is intended to support evidence-based policymaking by identifying barriers to health and quality of life. The resolution encourages state departments to share data in ways that are secure, appropriate, and privacy-protective, with the Office urged to use strict data governance and seek deidentified, aggregated, or anonymized data whenever possible.
Impact
SCR135 does not amend the Hawaii Revised Statutes or create a new regulatory program; instead, it expresses the Legislature’s support for interagency data-sharing and encourages state departments to enter into agreements with the Office of Wellness and Resilience. Its practical effect is to promote cross-departmental coordination and expand the Office’s access to state data for analysis of social determinants of health, while emphasizing confidentiality, privacy, and data governance protections for residents.
Sentiment
The available legislative history suggests generally favorable sentiment. The Senate Government Operations committee passed the resolution with amendments on a 4-0 vote, indicating unanimous support among those voting. The bill’s framing around wellness, trauma-informed care, and evidence-based service delivery appears to have broad appeal, and there is no recorded opposition in the provided materials.
Contention
The main issue raised by the resolution itself is not whether data should be shared, but how it should be shared. The bill stresses that any agreements must be secure, appropriate, and privacy-protective, and that the Office should rely on deidentified, aggregated, or anonymized data. Any potential concern would likely center on data privacy, confidentiality, and the administrative burden of coordinating data-sharing across departments with different collection methods, though no specific objections are reflected in the provided discussion or vote record.
An act to amend Sections 24801, 24826, 24827, 24830, 24862, and 24908 of, to repeal Section 24861 of, and to repeal and add Section 24863 of, the Public Utilities Code, relating to transportation.