Strengths

• Blocks boards from considering expunged records.

Areas of Improvement

• Strengthen safeguards for due process by requiring a petition process and placing the burden of proof on the state.
• Require boards to consider evidence of rehabilitation and to use a directly related standard for all crimes, not just those older than 10 years.
• Extend protections to health care and welfare facilities and their employees.

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With weak laws across the board, Hawaii earns a D as its final grade. The state does have stronger protections for applicants who have not been convicted of a crime in the past 10 years. In those cases, the state can only deny a license if the ex-offender “has not been sufficiently rehabilitated” and only if their crime “directly relates” to the license—a higher standard than the “rational relationship” used for more recent convictions.

Meanwhile, the state’s otherwise middling protections are completely absent for facilities licensed by the Department of Human Services or the Health Department. Under state law, employees at these facilities, which include assisted living centers, community care foster homes, and child care facilities, can be denied licenses based on any conviction other than a minor traffic ticket.

Statute: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 831-3.1 (2018)