The Hawaiʻi Family Court that placed Isabella Kalua with foster parents now accused of killing her must release records detailing the process that led to one of the state’s most notorious child abuse deaths, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling marks a dramatic break with a 1999 Supreme Court opinion in Kema v. Gaddis that blocked the release of records in another infamous child abuse death involving 6-year-old Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. That case had set the tone for Family Court transparency for more than two decades.

In its Tuesday decision, the Supreme Court wrote that the best interest of the children is not the only factor to consider in making Family Court records public, breaking with its reasoning in the Kema case.

Other “legitimate interests” should also come into play, the court said, such as informing the public about what happened in a case that led to the death of a foster child.

In a larger sense, releasing the records promotes transparency and the public’s faith in the integrity of the judicial process, the court wrote.

As a practical matter, the decision means that 975 pages of records about Isabella’s placement as a foster child and eventual adoption by Lehua and Isaac Kalua are now subject to release. The state’s Department of Human Services has never publicly accounted for its actions in the case, including why it recommended the Kaluas adopt the girl.

The Supreme Court redacted information from the records, such as the names of Isabella’s siblings and references to abuse that they may have suffered along with her, to protect their privacy. The parties in the case, including DHS and Isaac Kalua, will have 30 days to file objections to the release of any parts of the records not already blacked out.

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“This is a significant shift in how the Department of Human Services and family courts should be viewing the secrecy that surrounds these types of proceedings,” said Brian Black, executive director of Public First Law Center, which petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case after a Family Court judge denied release of the records.

“This is definitely a huge step forward.”

Isabella, whose birth name was Ariel Sellers, disappeared in 2021, setting off a dayslong search in her Waimānalo neighborhood. Two months later, her adoptive parents were accused of starving and beating her to death. The 6-year-old girl was allegedly locked in a dog crate the night she died, with her mouth duct-taped shut.

The Kaluas, who face second-degree murder charges, are set to go on trial in February.

The state is required by federal law to release information about child deaths and near-deaths that result from abuse or neglect.

In 2023, DHS provided Civil Beat brief summaries of those cases. But it did not include Isabella’s. First, DHS explained that since the girl had not been officially declared dead, her case was not subject to disclosure under the federal law.

After a judge declared her dead, DHS said it still wouldn’t release the information because the judge had not specified that she died of abuse.

That’s when Public First got involved, filing motions in December 2024 to unseal portions of Isabella’s foster and adoption case files.

Family Court Judge Matthew Viola denied the motions. Viola agreed that the public had an interest in knowing about the state’s actions. But the records would have to be so heavily redacted, he wrote, that the public might be left with a distorted picture of what happened.

The Supreme Court disagreed, pointing out that if a redacted record still conveys any information, it must be released.

It said that the Legislature designed state law to conform with federal statute and that includes allowing public access to child welfare records under certain circumstances.

The court agreed with Public First’s argument that “the death of any child by parents that DHS recommended deserves the hard light of public scrutiny to assess what went wrong and how to fix it.”

The court also called on a Family Court committee to draft an amendment governing disclosure of records when a child has died, been critically injured or is missing.

“DHS respects the decision of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and will work with the Court to implement that decision,” the department wrote in response to a request for comment.

This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.