H-3323

AN ACT Relating to prevention services for at-risk children and their families; adding new sections to chapter 43.63A RCW; adding a new section to chapter 82.02 RCW; and providing an effective date.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This act may be known and cited as the children's investment trust act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The legislature finds that:

(1) The failure of a significant number of our children to develop to their full potential threatens Washington state's future productivity and competitiveness;

(2) The failure of children to thrive and develop leads to avoidable long-term costs to society in terms of illness, welfare, teenage pregnancies, school drop-outs, drug and alcohol addiction, child abuse, and crime;

(3) Investments in preventive services for children and their families are highly effective in alleviating such social costs if children are reached early;

(4) While much is spent on children through a variety of programs, the focus has most often been on crisis response. While support for children in crisis is essential, a more long-range view dictates a focus on preventive services. Only through early intervention and prevention can we stem the flow of children needing crisis help and treatment. Our overloaded crisis systems will remain overloaded unless we move toward prevention strategies;

(5) Much is spent on treatment approaches identifying a specific problem and mandating a specific service in response. While identifying single problems and specific interventions are important, research suggests that the most effective early interventions for children are those which are more comprehensive in approach, with the flexibility to respond to a host of potential barriers or dysfunctions; and

(6) Together, the lack of comprehensiveness in approach and the crisis nature of current assistance create a system widely viewed as fragmented, short-sighted, and infective. With a few exceptions, we have a system designed not to help children thrive and develop, but to help them survive after being hurt.

The legislature is aware that model programs such as the federal head start program and our own early childhood education and assistance program incorporate many of the positive concepts suggested herein; the legislature is anxious to incorporate the positive aspects of these more comprehensive models into currently existing single-service programs at the community level, making them more comprehensive, more culturally sensitive, and more prevention-oriented in nature.

Therefore, through this act, it is the intent of the legislature to develop a dedicated trust fund supported by general appropriations, as well as gifts, grants, and earmarked revenue, which will: Provide start-up funding for pilot programs, based on local need; compliment existing community programs; help to develop comprehensive, culturally sensitive, prevention-oriented programs for at-risk children and their families; foster self-sufficiency among families; and encourage and support local prevention initiatives that develop creative community partnerships.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout sections 4 through 6 of this act.

(1) "Comprehensive service" means a service that responds to the needs of families or children, or both, as they are identified, regardless of the specific service being provided when new issues arise.

(2) "Magnet programs" are those existing programs which currently attract families to human service providers, such as housing programs, energy assistance, or health care. Magnet services can be leveraged into a starting point to identify and respond to other needs of the child and family, often by using existing resources in creating partnerships.

(3) "Model program services" means services targeted to young children, zero to eight years of age, and that: Are responsive to the family unit as a whole; are comprehensive and culturally sensitive in nature; generally occur before the young child is in crisis due to abuse or neglect; incorporate mutually developed family goals; and include coordinated efforts from other community resources. "Model program services" may incorporate new and innovative community partnerships into the service design, as between a school district and a private nonprofit agency, or between a private nonprofit agency and the sheriff's department, for example.

(4) "Prevention services" means program interventions that focus on young children, generally zero to eight years of age, prior to those children being in need of crisis intervention, and which address dysfunctions related to both child and family.

(5) "Single service" means those programs such as energy assistance or landlord-tenant counseling, as examples, that allow funds to be used only for that specific service, even if, while providing that service, the service provider identifies other problems in the family that need attention.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The purposes of chapter ...., Laws of 1992 (this act) are to:

(1) Respond to a widely felt need to more aggressively fund prevention services to and for young at-risk children and their families, specifically tailored to the unique problems existing at the local community level;

(2) Provide a source of potential funding to leverage and improve upon the integration and coordination of existing services, and to develop new and innovative partnerships that focus on prevention, leading toward self-sufficiency; and

(3) Assist existing programs to take a more comprehensive, culturally sensitive service approach by providing a source of funding that encourages specific local response to the wide array of problems that may be impacting at-risk children and their families.

Overall, the legislature desires to actively support programs for young at-risk children that: Focus on local responses which are culturally sensitive; provide comprehensive help rather than a single service; result in the development of a positive working relationship between the provider and the family based on mutual responsibility; empower the family to become more self-sufficient; reach young children and their families before they are in major crisis; and rely on existing community-based services as magnet programs that already attract children and families in need.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. A new section is added to chapter 82.02 RCW to read as follows:

(1) For purposes of this section:

(a) "Maintain a place of business in this state" includes:

(i) Maintaining, occupying, or using, permanently or temporarily, directly or indirectly, or through a subsidiary or agent, by whatever name called, an office, place of distribution, sales or sample room or place, warehouse or storage place, or other place of business; or

(ii) Soliciting sales or taking orders by sales agents or travelling representatives.

(b) "Engage in business activities within this state" includes:

(i) Purposefully or systematically exploiting the market provided by this state by any media-assisted, media-facilitated, or media-solicited means including, but not limited to, direct mail advertising, unsolicited distribution of catalogues, computer-assisted shopping, telephone, television, radio, or other electronic media, or magazine or newspaper advertisements or other media; or

(ii) Being owned or controlled by the same interests that own or control a seller engaged in business in the same or similar line of business in this state; or

(iii) Maintaining or having franchisee or licensee operating under the seller's trade name in this state if the franchisee or licensee is required to collect use tax.

(c) "Purposefully or systematically exploiting the market provided by this state" is presumed to take place if the gross proceeds of sales of tangible personal property delivered from outside this state to destinations in this state exceed five hundred thousand dollars during a period of twelve consecutive months.

(2) Within five days after the end of each calendar quarter, the department of revenue shall notify the state treasurer of the percentage of state sales and use tax revenues collected in the immediately preceding calendar quarter from out-of-state taxpayers who do not maintain a place of business in this state but who engage in business activities within this state by purposefully and systematically exploiting the market provided by this state through media-assisted, media-facilitated, or media-solicited means.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1) The children's investment trust account is created in the state treasury. Within six days after the end of each calendar quarter, the treasurer shall transfer the amount of sales and use tax revenues under section 5(2) of this act to the children's investment trust account. Moneys in the account may be spent only after appropriation. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW. Moneys from the account shall be used by the department of community development as follows to carry out the purposes of section 4 of this act:

(a) Forty-eight and one-half percent for grants under the community services block grant program;

(b) Forty-eight and one-half percent for competitive grants; and

(2) The department of community development shall seek grant proposals that incorporate model program services and carry out the purposes enumerated in section 4 of this act. To facilitate continuity of program, proposals should be for three years of continuous service. To facilitate widespread distribution of the funds and services, no grant shall exceed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars for the three-year period. In addition, no competitively grant-funded agency may submit a second competitive proposal until the initial program is within one year of expiration. Funded programs may not be automatically renewed, but may compete for ongoing funding on a three-year cycle.

(3) Entities eligible for competitive grant funds include any nonprofit institution showing the ability to extend existing services into more effective prevention-oriented programs for at-risk children and their families to carry out the purpose enumerated in section 4 of this act.

(4) The department of community development shall, in order to carry out the purposes enumerated in section 4 of this act, adopt rules governing the development of a competitive request for proposal process; fiscal accounting; annual site visits to funded programs; the review and analysis of annual program reports provided by funded agencies; and development of reports provided to the legislature in partnership with local program providers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 4 and 6 of this act are each added to chapter 43.63A RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. This act shall take effect July 1, 1992.