The head of the state Department of Human Services defended her department’s confidentiality policy Thursday and told lawmakers there will be no public release of information on the circumstances surrounding last month’s unexplained death of a 9-month-old Hauula boy while in state custody.

Only Jayvid Waa-Ili’s legal guardians — or others with a legal right — will find out what happened after the baby was taken into state custody on Aug. 10 and then died on Aug. 26, Patricia McManaman told the House Human Services Committee.

McManaman appeared Thursday at an informational hearing at the state Capitol called by lawmakers to clarify DHS policies over the release of information in fatal cases such as Waa-Ili’s.

Following the hearing McManaman, citing confidentiality, declined to tell the Star-Advertiser who has a legal right to information about Waa-Ili.

Waa-Ili’s paternal grandparents previously told the Star-Advertiser that they want to know what happened to the baby after he was taken into custody by Child Welfare Services from a relative’s Hauula home — and why he was later taken to the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, where he died.

State and federal laws allow the release of confidential information in exceptional cases, such as a child’s death, McManaman said.

But in Waa-Ili’s case, McManaman said, the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office has yet to declare a cause of death, pending toxicology tests.

"We as a department do not know the circumstances surrounding the child’s death," McManaman said. "At this point in time, there is no legitimate reason to release information about this child to the public."

McManaman reinstated DHS privacy rules after she was appointed in December. Her predecessor, Lillian Koller, released in 2005 about 2,000 pages of confidential documents regarding Peter Boy Kema, a 6-year-old Hawaii island boy who has not been seen by family members since late 1996 or 1997.

Then last year, Koller posted online the case files of 19-year-old Erwin Viado Celes, who hanged himself six months after "aging out" of Hawaii’s foster care system.

Waa-Ili’s grandparents were invited to testify at Thursday’s hearing but did not attend.

"I’m a grandparent and grandparents have no rights," said Raelene Tenno, a member of a nonprofit group called Parents for Righteousness, who testified at the hearing. "So many grandparents in Hawaii are raising their grandchildren, and yet we have no rights."

McManaman told legislators she reviewed about 25 of the 30 fatal cases involving children who died in state custody since 2000 and found one of them was caused by child abuse.

"Yes, the death of one child is one too many," McManaman said.

She then reviewed for lawmakers the causes of some of the other deaths, which included one child who died of a stroke at age 7 after suffering from "multiple congenital problems"; another who suffered seizures related to drug exposure; and a "medically fragile child (who) died after running away from home and was later found dead."

McManaman later told the Star-Advertiser that she could not recall the year that the child died from abuse while in state custody. And she would not speculate whether there might be other abuse-related deaths among the five cases she did not review.

In the fatal case, McManaman said, "the identity of the perpetrators was never confirmed."

She told lawmakers that Department of Human Services case files often "reveal a family’s innermost thoughts and fears," and confidentiality has to be guaranteed to families, especially to "protect children and guard against reprisals."

State Rep. John Mizuno, chairman of the House Human Services Committee, presided over Thursday’s hearing and said he opposed last year’s online release of Celes’ files.

Mizuno continued to criticize McManaman’s predecessor, Koller, for not taking down Celes’ case files after family members protested.

"I saw firsthand what it did to the family," Mizuno said. "I think we can learn from the past."

He called the release of confidential case files in fatal child cases a "balancing test."

But in general, Mizuno said, under McManaman, "I like where this department is going, DHS. There’s lots of openness, lots of flexibility."

At the conclusion of the hearing, state Rep. Kymberly Marcos Pine (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) offered to work with DHS to restore positions lost due to budget cuts and reductions in force.

"Over time we have complicated your job," she said.

Legislators, Pine said, need "to know how can you be more efficient so we can expand departments to change with the times."