BP BHEAD INT H

AN ACT Relating to community work experience for income assistance recipients; amending RCW 74.25.010; adding a new section to chapter 74.25 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 74.25.010 and 1991 c 126 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

The legislature establishes as state policy the goal of economic self-sufficiency for employable recipients of public assistance, through employment, training, and education. In furtherance of this policy, the legislature intends to comply with the requirements of the federal social security act, as amended, by creating a job opportunities and basic skills training program for applicants and recipients of aid to families with dependent children. The purpose of this program is to provide recipients of aid to families with dependent children the opportunity to obtain a full range of necessary education, training, skills, and supportive services, including child care, consistent with their needs, that will help them enter or reenter gainful employment, thereby avoiding long-term welfare dependence and achieving economic self-sufficiency. The program shall be operated by the department of social and health services in conformance with federal law and consistent with the following legislative findings:

(1) The legislature finds that the well-being of children depends not only on meeting their material needs, but also on the ability of parents to become economically self-sufficient. The job opportunities and basic skills training program is specifically directed at increasing the household earnings of aid to families with dependent children recipients, through the removal of barriers preventing them from achieving self-sufficiency. These barriers include, but are not limited to, the lack of supportive services such as affordable and reliable child care, adequate transportation, appropriate counseling, and necessary job-related tools, equipment, books, clothing, and supplies, the absence of basic literacy skills, the lack of educational attainment sufficient to meet labor market demands for career employees, and the nonavailability of useful labor market assessments.

(2) The legislature also recognizes that aid to families with dependent children recipients must be acknowledged as active participants in self-sufficiency planning under the program. The legislature finds that the department of social and health services should communicate concepts of personal empowerment, self-motivation, and self-esteem to program participants. The legislature further recognizes that informed choice is consistent with individual responsibility, and that parents should be given a range of options for available child care while participating in the program.

(3) The legislature finds that education, including, but not limited to, literacy, high school equivalency, vocational, secondary, and postsecondary, is one of the most important tools an individual needs to achieve full independence, and that this should be an important component of the program.

(4) The legislature finds that participation in a program of community work experience can provide aid to families with dependent children recipients with an opportunity to acquire basic work skills that are essential to achieving employment and economic self-sufficiency.

(5) The legislature further finds that the objectives of this program are to assure that aid to families with dependent children recipients achieve financial stability and an adequate standard of living at wages that will meet family needs.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 74.25 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department of social and health services shall establish, directly or by contract, a community work experience program for aid to families with dependent children recipients who have been receiving such benefits for at least thirty-six continuous months.

(2) Participation in the community work experience program shall be mandatory for aid to families with dependent children recipients who have been receiving such benefits for at least thirty-six continuous months, except that participation in the program shall be voluntary for:

(a) Teenage custodial parents working to receive their general education development certificate or high school diploma;

(b) Recipients enrolled in a vocational education or job training program that includes a work experience component;

(d) Recipients determined to require substance abuse treatment prior to job placement;

(e) Recipients determined to be permanently or temporarily incapacitated and recipients who are primary caregivers to such persons;

(f) Recipients who are parents of children less than six years of age;

(g) Recipients for whom suitable child care arrangements are necessary, but are not provided by the department of social and health services; and

(h) Recipients who would be required to commute for more than one hour each way to a community work experience position without access to public or employer-sponsored transportation.

(3) The community work experience program shall:

(a) Coordinate with other job opportunities and basic skills component activities, ensuring that support service and other needs identified in the recipient's employability plan are addressed and opportunities for job placement activities can be pursued;

(b) Ensure that assignments to community work experience positions take into consideration the recipient's prior training, work experience, skills, basic literacy, interests, and barriers to employment;

(c) Provide for a reassessment and revision, as appropriate, of the recipient's employability plan after each six months of community work experience participation;

(d) Ensure that community work experience positions:

(i) Do not fill established, unfilled position vacancies in a worksite or result in displacement of a currently employed person;

(ii) Serve a useful public purpose in private or nonprofit agencies. The department shall make an effort to place recipients in community work experience positions in licensed child care facilities and early childhood education programs; and

(iii) Have not been developed in response to the existence of a strike, lockout, or other bona fide labor dispute or violate any existing labor agreement between an employee and an employer;

(e) Not require a recipient to use his or her income or resources to pay costs of participating in the community work experience program; and

(f) Ensure that agencies providing community work experience opportunities offer workers' compensation coverage on the same basis as regular employees.

(4) If a recipient required to participate in the community work experience program under subsection (2) of this section is not engaged in work experience efforts of at least twenty hours per week within twelve months of the recipient's entry into the program, the recipient's aid to families with dependent children monthly benefit payment shall be reduced by ten percent of the amount for which the recipient is otherwise eligible. In determining whether a recipient is working twenty hours per week, the department shall give credit for hours worked by the recipient in employment independent of the community work experience program. For purposes of determining the amount of the monthly benefit payment for recipients who are subject to benefit reductions pursuant to this subsection, all countable nonexempt earned income shall be subtracted from an amount equal to the payment standard.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. By October 1, 1994, the department of social and health services shall request the governor to seek congressional or federal agency action necessary to implement chapter ..., Laws of 1994 (this act).