6527-S

AN ACT Relating to job placement and training for youth; amending RCW 28A.190.030 and 28A.190.040; adding new sections to chapter 43.330 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 13.06 RCW; creating a new section; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that the state's economy increasingly depends upon a well-educated work force with skills beyond basic academic skills. The legislature also finds that the projection of a shortage of skilled workers in the state implies we must invest in the capacity of all citizens to be productive members of society. In addition, the legislature finds that at-risk youth are less likely than other youth to have developed skills that make them desirable employees, and they are also less likely to have employment and job training opportunities. The legislature further finds that young people with a quality education, marketable skills, and a path to family wage employment are far less likely to become involved in violence and crime. Public and private efforts to help at-risk young people acquire marketable skills, work experience, educational assistance, and other assistance toward family wage careers can be an important part of efforts to reduce youth violence. The legislature further finds that the provision of occupational skills, employment experience, and job placement assistance to juvenile offenders is of particular value in reducing the recidivism rate of such offenders and reducing the potential for violent behavior by such offenders upon return to their communities.

(2) It is the intent of the legislature to strengthen the economy and to expand opportunities for at-risk youth by creating job placement and training projects at the community level. It is also the intent of the legislature that the educational and training needs of all juvenile offenders in state institutions and group homes be met in a manner that allows the youth to obtain gainful employment upon release. It is the purpose of this act to enhance the career options and job readiness of at-risk youth and incarcerated youth. It is the further purpose of sections 2 through 9 of this act to encourage community-based efforts to reduce youth violence.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The department shall develop and administer an at-risk youth job placement and training program. The program shall provide grants to local groups to:

(a) Identify and recruit at-risk youth for local job opportunities;

(b) Provide skills and needs assessments for each youth recruited;

(d) Identify businesses willing to provide employment and training opportunities for at-risk youth; and

(e) Match each youth recruited with a business that meets his or her skills and training needs.

(2) The director shall form a selection panel that shall assist in the development of the grant application and shall select successful applicants. The panel shall be composed of representatives from business, labor, local communities, youth organizations, the work force training and education coordinating board, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, the employment security department, and the department of community, trade, and economic development.

(3) To be eligible to receive grants under this program, an applicant group shall be, or have a sponsoring fiscal agent that is:

(a) A nonprofit organization registered with the secretary of state;

(b) An educational or training institution;

(d) A labor union;

(e) A local government; or

(f) A private industry council.

(4) Additional consideration shall be given to applicant groups that demonstrate:

(a) The collaboration of business, labor, education and training, community organizations, and local government in the job placement and training project;

(b) The commitment of local resources to match the grant from the state; and

(c) That the employment and training opportunities being developed for at-risk youth through the project prepare the individual for demand occupations.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The department shall develop and operate an at-risk youth prevention and intervention program. The program shall provide technical and financial resources to communities, school districts, and institutions that offer youth long-term positive alternatives to violence, reduce the factors contributing to youth violence, and establish strong ties between youth and their communities. The program shall fund activities for the following direct services to at-risk youth and their families:

(1) At least fifty percent of the funds appropriated in section 11(2) of this act shall be used to provide employment assistance, including job development, school-to-work placement, employment readiness training, basic skills, apprenticeships, job mentoring, and private sector and community service employment;

(2) The remainder of the funds appropriated in section 11(2) of this act shall be used to:

(a) Provide education assistance, including tutoring, mentoring, drop-out prevention, interactions with role models, entrepreneurial education and projects, and employment reentry assistance services;

(b) Provide peer-to-peer, group, and individual counseling, including crisis intervention, for at-risk youth and their parents;

(c) Provide youth coalitions that provide opportunities to develop leadership skills and gain appropriate respect, recognition, and rewards for their positive contribution to their community; and

(d) Support parental involvement, including education and training and home visits.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The department shall make the funds available for purposes of section 3 of this act to community family councils, community-based private nonprofit organizations, school districts, educational service districts, juvenile institutions, Indian tribes, private industry councils, youth organizations, and local governments. The department shall consider at least the following factors when selecting projects for funding:

(1) Whether there was an assessment made of the factors contributing to the problem of youth violence in the community, which assessment includes empirical evidence linking these factors to youth violence, and a strategy proposed that addresses the factors identified;

(2) Whether there was active community and youth participation, including private sector business participation, in designing the program and in proposed implementation of the program;

(3) Whether there is proposed collaboration among local community entities, including private businesses, in carrying out the project;

(4) For employment and training components specifically, whether there is collaboration with the local business community, labor organizations, and training institutions;

(5) Whether there is local commitment of resources and effort to carrying out the project in the short-term as well as a long-term commitment to reducing youth violence;

(6) The likelihood that the project will significantly benefit youth who are at-risk or will increase public safety in areas with high rates of violent crime by juveniles;

(7) The experience or expertise of the sponsors to carry out the proposed project; and

(8) The sponsors' plan for specifically predicting and evaluating the outcomes of the project.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The department shall:

(1) Provide technical assistance to applicants to increase their organizational capacity and to improve the likelihood of a successful application and, further, provide additional technical assistance and training resources to successful applicants;

(2) Work to involve youth in its efforts to reduce youth violence;

(3) Use all means possible to communicate to communities, and any other interested parties, state-wide information concerning the "best practices" and positive outcomes of community-based youth violence prevention and intervention projects. To accomplish this, the department may provide technical assistance through peers and state staff, create a speakers' bureau, sponsor conferences and workshops in which model programs are featured, and publish and distribute a workbook of best practices;

(4) Establish a system to evaluate the effectiveness of projects using benchmarks. The benchmarks must be observable outcomes, set in advance, and measured at the end of the funding cycle for the programs. By January 1, 1995, the department shall report to the governor and the legislature on the system established and the outcomes achieved to date.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. As components of the department's at-risk youth prevention and intervention program, the department shall review and evaluate existing youth employment readiness, mentorship, and training programs and award year-long grants for a select number that can demonstrate current success, current and prospective funding, and future promise. Grants must be used specifically either to increase the number of participants or to improve or expand services to existing participants, or both. An existing youth employment readiness, mentorship, or training program may apply for a grant by providing relevant information, including, but not limited to:

(1) A description and verification of existing funding and projected funding from existing sources;

(2) A detailed description of the program's history and design, including an evaluative history with analysis of funding sources;

(3) A current list of participant youth and former participants with outcome-based evaluations of failure and success of individual program participants;

(4) A current list of participant mentors, businesses, employers, or educators, as well as any former participant mentors, businesses, employers, or educators and their own anecdotal and subjective evaluations of the program;

(5) A current evaluation of the program completed by the current funding sources;

(6) An analysis of needed additional funding complete with a description of the ways it will be allocated and specific outcome benchmarks that the additional funding is projected to achieve; and

(7) A proposed method of self-evaluation using the benchmarks, which evaluation can in turn be used by the department for further funding decisions.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. A new section is added to chapter 13.06 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The director of the division of juvenile rehabilitation and the several school districts within which there is located a residential school shall develop and implement a job skills training program as part of the division's and the districts' overall treatment and educational responsibilities to juvenile offenders in all residential schools. The program shall provide youth with skills necessary to locate, compete for, and maintain employment in demand occupations. In operating the program the director and the several school districts shall:

(a) Assure that educational programs offered are occupationally based and provide a wide range of prevocational skills necessary to career development;

(b) Assure that vocational skills obtained in the classroom and in school are transferable to the emerging labor market;

(c) Assure that basic skill offerings include remedial and advanced skills in workplace communication, negotiation, teamwork, and problem solving;

(d) Develop a system-wide process for evaluating all youth on the basis of self-management skills, employability skills, and life skills;

(e) Work with the office of the superintendent of public instruction to assure that credit is awarded toward high school completion for documented performance gains and vocational skill acquisition in addition to traditional or standard academic credit awarded for completion hours;

(f) Work with local business organizations to provide information and career awareness to youth in all facilities; and

(g) Provide institutional work experience opportunities and programs that are coordinated with educational programs to reinforce learning and application of skills.

(2) The director and the several school districts shall consult with the employment security department, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, and the work force training and education coordinating board on the design, implementation, coordination, and management of the program.

(3) The director shall ensure that all facility counselors are trained in the area of youth employment skills assessment and development.

Sec. 8. RCW 28A.190.030 and 1990 c 33 s 172 are each amended to read as follows:

Each school district within which there is located a residential school shall, singly or in concert with another school district pursuant to RCW 28A.335.160 and 28A.225.250 or pursuant to chapter 39.34 RCW, conduct a program of education, including the job skills training program created in section 7 of this act and related student activities, for residents of the residential school. Except as otherwise provided for by contract pursuant to RCW 28A.190.050, the duties and authority of a school district and its employees to conduct such a program shall be limited to the following:

(1) The employment, supervision and control of administrators, teachers, specialized personnel and other persons, deemed necessary by the school district for the conduct of the program of education;

(2) The purchase, lease or rental and provision of textbooks, maps, audio-visual equipment, paper, writing instruments, physical education equipment and other instructional equipment, materials and supplies, deemed necessary by the school district for the conduct of the program of education;

(3) The development and implementation, in consultation with the superintendent or chief administrator of the residential school or his or her designee, of the curriculum;

(4) The conduct of a program of education, including related student activities, for residents who are three years of age and less than twenty-one years of age, and have not met high school graduation requirements as now or hereafter established by the state board of education and the school district which includes:

(a) Not less than one hundred and eighty school days each school year;

(b) Special education pursuant to RCW 28A.155.010 through 28A.155.100, and vocational education including the job skills training program created in section 7 of this act, as necessary to address the unique needs and limitations of residents. Vocational education opportunities shall be made available to each residential school student between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. The vocational programs offered shall be occupationally based and provide skills that are transferrable to the emerging labor market; and

(c) Such courses of instruction and school related student activities as are provided by the school district for nonresidential school students to the extent it is practical and judged appropriate for the residents by the school district after consultation with the superintendent or chief administrator of the residential school: PROVIDED, That a preschool special education program may be provided for handicapped residential school students;

(5) The control of students while participating in a program of education conducted pursuant to this section and the discipline, suspension or expulsion of students for violation of reasonable rules of conduct adopted by the school district; and

(6) The expenditure of funds for the direct and indirect costs of maintaining and operating the program of education that are appropriated by the legislature and allocated by the superintendent of public instruction for the exclusive purpose of maintaining and operating residential school programs of education, and funds from federal and private grants, bequests and gifts made for the purpose of maintaining and operating the program of education.

Sec. 9. RCW 28A.190.040 and 1990 c 33 s 173 are each amended to read as follows:

The duties and authority of the department of social and health services and of each superintendent or chief administrator of a residential school to support each program of education conducted by a school district pursuant to RCW 28A.190.030, shall include the following:

(1) The provision of transportation for residential school students to and from the sites of the program of education through the purchase, lease or rental of school buses and other vehicles as necessary;

(2) The provision of safe and healthy building and playground space for the conduct of the program of education through the construction, purchase, lease or rental of such space as necessary;

(3) The provision of furniture, vocational instruction machines and tools, building and playground fixtures, and other equipment and fixtures for the conduct of the program of education through construction, purchase, lease or rental as necessary;

(4) The provision of heat, lights, telephones, janitorial services, repair services, and other support services for the vehicles, building and playground spaces, equipment and fixtures provided for in this section;

(5) The employment, supervision and control of persons to transport students and to maintain the vehicles, building and playground spaces, equipment and fixtures, provided for in this section;

(6) Clinical and medical evaluation services necessary to a determination by the school district of the educational needs of residential school students; and

(7) Such other support services and facilities as are reasonably necessary for the conduct of the program of education and the job skills training program created in section 7 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. Sections 2 through 6 of this act are each added to chapter 43.330 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. (1) The sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1995, from the general fund‑-state to the department of community, trade, and economic development for the purposes of section 2 of this act.

(2) The sum of two million dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1995, from the general fund‑-state to the department of community, trade, and economic development for the purposes of sections 3 through 6 of this act.

(3) The sum of three hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1995, from the general fund‑-state to the department of social and health services for the purposes of sections 7 through 9 of this act.