Beginning on page 1, line 12, after "severe." strike all material through "formula." on page 3, line 39 and insert "The legislature intends to determine causes of these bus driver shortages and identify options to improve recruitment and retention of school bus drivers.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) By November 1, 2022, the joint legislative audit and review committee must complete a report that analyzes the wages and benefits of staff, including bus drivers, for nongovernmental entities providing student transportation under contract with Washington school districts. The report must compare these wages and benefits with wages and benefits paid to similar employees of school districts that do not contract for student transportation.
(2) The report must also compare the level of turnover for school bus drivers who work for nongovernmental entities with those working for school districts.
(3) The report must identify options for reducing turnover for school bus drivers who work for nongovernmental entities, including:
(a) By requiring school district contracts for contracted student transportation to ensure health insurance and retirement benefits are comparable to similar workers providing student transportation as employees of school districts; and
(b) By requiring school district contracts for contracted student transportation to ensure total compensation is increased sufficiently so that employees can purchase an available silver plan on the Washington healthplanfinder and employees receive a three percent employer match for contributions to a retirement plan.
(4) The report must identify the costs, implementation challenges, and contract compliance difficulties for the options identified in subsection (3) of this section.
(5) This section expires November 1, 2023."
On page 4, beginning on line 3, after "entities;" strike all material through "section." on line 4 and insert "creating new sections; and providing an expiration date."