HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 1490

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                       Human Services

Title:  An act relating to child care.

Brief Description:  Providing for child care.

Sponsors:  Representatives Wineberry, Forner, Shin, Sheldon, King, Karahalios, J. Kohl and Anderson.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Human Services, February 25, 1993, DP.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives Leonard, Chair; Riley, Vice Chair; Cooke, Ranking Minority Member; Talcott, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Brown; Karahalios; Lisk; Padden; Patterson; Thibaudeau; and Wolfe.

Staff:  Jim Erlandson (786-7093).

Background:  Existing law calls upon the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to organize local child care resource and referral organizations into a statewide system. The statewide child care resource and referral network was created in 1989 and has continued to function since that time. Also under existing law, DSHS established the Office of the Child Care Resources Coordinator. Among other duties, this office has the responsibility of staffing the Child Care Coordinating Committee, coordinating with the child care community, leveraging public and private monies and distributing grants to local child care resource and referral organizations.

Summary of Bill:  Section 1 of this bill establishes the importance of constructing partnerships at state and local levels in the provision of quality, affordable child care. It describes the role of the state-wide child care resource and referral network in supporting community based programs, fostering state-wide strategies and generating public/private partnerships.

Section 2 eliminates wording that called for the establishment of the child care resource and referral network and adds wording that includes the network as part of the child care system. The Office of the Child Care Resources Coordinator is replaced with the Office of Child Care Policy.  Also, the limitation of $25,000 as the maximum grant to be given under this section is removed.

Section 3 establishes the need for this change to take place immediately.

Fiscal Note: Requested.

Effective Date:  The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

Testimony For:  Elizabeth Thompson from the Child Care Referral Network and Karen Tvedt from the Department of Social and Health Services testified that the bill will allow for continued coordination of child care services around the state. Karen clarified that the $25,000 limitation was originally included in statute before federal funds became available, and that the limitation now only would serve to limit the effectiveness of the program in larger metropolitan areas. Representative Jesse Wineberry, the bill's sponsor, testified to the importance of child care as an underpinning to employment and self-sufficiency.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  John Briehl and Elizabeth Thompson, Washington State Resource and Referral Network; Laurie Lippold, Children's Home Society; Lonnie Johns-Brown, National Organization for Women; Ann Simons, Washington Women Unite; and Karen Tvedt, Department of Social and Health Services.