A Senate committee Monday advanced a grass-roots bill that would appropriate about $2.5 million to establish a pilot program to add staff to the state’s beleaguered East Hawaii child welfare system and limit the number of children assigned to each social worker there.

The program is meant to address an ongoing crisis in the eastern half of Hawaii island, where social workers within Child Welfare Services are having to cut corners because of heavy workloads and the need at times to drive long distances to visit abused and neglected children and their families or foster parents.

House Bill 2277 has moved through the legislative process so far with no opposition — a noteworthy feat given that the idea was hatched by a grass-roots group of nearly a dozen people who started meeting with legislators only in November.

At the time, the Department of Human Services, which oversees the state’s CWS system, wasn’t even on board as a supporter.

State Sen. Josh Green, chairman of the Senate Human Services Committee that approved the measure Monday, adding the cost component, lauded the grass-roots group for what he called an impressive effort to push the bill.

It now goes to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The House already approved an earlier version of the bill — minus the cost component, which DHS only recently calculated.

“This might be the most sensible bill of the session,” Green said, adding that his committee would make the legislation a priority. “We would be hard-pressed not to pass this.”

The measure would establish a five-year pilot program that would limit to 20 the number of children assigned to each social worker in the East Hawaii CWS office, which is responsible for the largest geographic area in the state.

Some CWS social workers now have 40 or more and, given the demands of the job, are unable to conduct the required monthly face-to-face visits with all their clients.

As a national standard, the Child Welfare League of America recommends that social workers have no more than 15 foster children under their supervision.

To achieve a cap of 20 children in East Hawaii, the bill calls for hiring eight new social workers and 15 support staff.

Adding the extra East Hawaii staff would result in about $1.4 million annually in additional personnel expenses, and the first-year operating costs would total just over $1 million, including an estimated $684,000 in one-time expenses for vehicles, computers, equipment, furniture and other things to get an office running, according to DHS.

The ongoing operating costs after the first year would be about $370,000 annually, DHS officials said.

Pankaj Bhanot, department director, said the state has to stop child abuse and neglect at all costs, and acknowledged that the CWS system is not perfect.

“We need to do more,” Bhanot told Green’s committee. “This (pilot program) is one of the right steps to take.”

Joseph O’Connell, a foster parent and service provider in East Hawaii, flew to Oahu on his own dime Monday to support the bill before Green’s committee. He was among the grass-roots advocates, including former foster youth, social workers and others, who met with legislators to promote the legislation.

When social workers have the resources they need, the results include more thorough child welfare investigations with fewer children removed from their homes, higher rates of foster children being reunified with their families and shorter times for the youth to be in the CWS system, O’Connell told the committee.

It also would mean more supported and happier foster parents, more satisfied CWS workers with less staff turnover, and ultimately better outcomes for children, he said.

“We’re just eight social workers and a policy away” from making this happen, O’Connell said.

If the pilot program proves successful, the idea would be to replicate it throughout the CWS system, according to Bhanot.