S-0913.1 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 5495
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State of Washington 52nd Legislature 1991 Regular Session
By Senator Talmadge.
Read first time February 4, 1991. Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services.
AN ACT Relating to long-term care of children; creating a new section; making an appropriation; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The department of social and health services shall contract, through the request for proposal process, with an independent qualified agency to establish, as a pilot project, two facilities for the long‑term care of children. Placement in such facilities shall be an alternative to foster care for children, twelve through eighteen years old, who have failed three or more out‑of‑home placements and for whom adoption is not likely or appropriate. The facilities are not intended to provide in‑patient care for children who are experiencing acute or severe psychiatric impairments. The facilities shall be semisecure and each may provide care for up to sixteen children. The duration of the pilot project shall be two years.
The legislative budget committee shall evaluate the effectiveness of the facilities operated under the pilot project and shall submit the evaluation to appropriate committees of the legislature by December 31, 1991.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The sum of two million four hundred ten thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1993, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of this act. Any funds from this appropriation remaining unexpended on June 30, 1993, are hereby reappropriated to the department of social and health services for the biennium ending June 30, 1995, for the purposes of this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.