Hawai'i is nearing a new milepost, one worth celebrating: For the first time in 15 years, the state is conducting all of its own affairs without Uncle Sam looking over its shoulder.

Last year, federal oversight resulting from the Felix consent decree governing special education came to a close. And on Nov. 30, the federal watch over the state's mental health services will come to a close.

Reaching this point is a cause for satisfaction, but not complacency. The role of state government is to take care of its residents' core needs. When poor conditions at the Hawai'i State Hospital led the Justice Department to sue the state in 1991, it was shameful to discover how far below standards we'd fallen.

In the intervening years under federal jurisdiction, the state has improved services to inpatients, and hospital oversight was lifted in 2004. However, residents living in the larger community lacked the outpatient mental health services they needed, so the watch continued.

U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang has noted many areas in which the state is newly compliant, such as improved access to housing and various mental-illness and substance-abuse services. But there's still work to be done, he said: Treatment planning, oversight of inpatient discharge, case management, community therapy services and other areas all could be improved.

The state administration has vowed to do so. Officials have maintained that it's important to make improvements that will last, and they're right. To its credit, the Department of Health has secured a $14.2 million federal grant to aid in the development of a strategic plan that will help the state knit together mental health services for children and adults.

In addition, a task force of health, social services and law enforcement experts is discussing ways to avoid placing excessive demands on the hospital — which is how the system got in trouble at the start.

Now it falls to lawmakers and the public to see that no more time is lost in committing resources to the job. The further along officials move in meeting benchmarks set by federal overseers, the more fully the state can meet its duty to its citizens who need help building healthier lives. That's critical to us all.