Urging All State Departments To Partner With The Office Of Wellness And Resilience For Secure And Appropriate Data Sharing Agreements.
Summary
SR114 is a Senate resolution urging every state department in Hawaii to work with the Office of Wellness and Resilience to create secure and appropriate data-sharing agreements. The resolution is aimed at improving the Office’s ability to study community needs, identify barriers to well-being, and develop trauma-informed, evidence-based programs and strategies. It builds on the Office’s existing statutory role under Act 291 (Session Laws of Hawaii 2022), which required creation of a social determinants of health dashboard; the resolution notes that the Office launched the Quality of Life and Well-Being Dashboard in December 2024 to meet that mandate.
The resolution emphasizes that many state datasets are currently siloed across departments and collected using different methods, which limits cross-departmental analysis. By encouraging data sharing, the measure seeks to allow the Office of Wellness and Resilience to combine information from multiple sources and produce a more complete picture of community challenges for policymakers and residents. It specifically calls for the use of deidentified, aggregated, and anonymized data, and for strict data governance protocols to protect privacy and confidentiality.
Impact
SR114 does not amend the Hawaii Revised Statutes or create a new regulatory program; instead, it expresses the Senate’s intent and urges cooperation among state agencies. Its practical effect is to encourage state departments to enter into data-sharing agreements with the Office of Wellness and Resilience and to prioritize privacy-protective data practices. The resolution could affect a broad range of agencies named for transmission, including Health, Human Services, Education, Taxation, Transportation, Corrections and Rehabilitation, and others, by promoting interagency coordination and data access for social determinants of health analysis.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests broad support, with the Senate Government Operations Committee passing the measure 4-0 with amendments. The resolution’s framing is generally positive and collaborative, emphasizing wellness, resilience, trauma-informed care, and improved public services. There is no recorded transcript debate in the provided materials, and the amendment history indicates the bill was acceptable to committee members after some refinement.
Contention
The main point of concern is privacy and confidentiality in government data sharing. The resolution directly addresses this by requiring secure and appropriate agreements, strict data governance, and the use of deidentified, aggregated, or anonymized data. Any potential contention would likely center on balancing the benefits of cross-agency analysis against risks of exposing sensitive resident information, as well as the administrative burden on departments that maintain siloed datasets and different collection methodologies.
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.