BP BHEAD INT H

AN ACT Relating to registration of child day-care facilities; reenacting and amending RCW 74.15.020; adding new sections to chapter 74.15 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds and declares that parents and guardians have the primary responsibility in caring for their children, including parental decisions in evaluating and selecting appropriate day-care services in the community. Informational guides published by the department of social and health services help parents address questions about health and safety concerns and day-care services best suited to the well-being of their children. The current regulatory structure of child day-care facilities does not adequately facilitate the day-care needs of families in providing parents with an adequate choice of other options. Currently some thirty-six percent of day-care providers reimbursed by the department under the aid to families with dependent children program are not licensed, with no increased incidents of harm. There needs to be a more flexible and responsive system of child day-care services that offers parents access to wider choices within a realistic regulatory framework.

Accordingly, it is the intent of the legislature to establish a tiered system of day-care services that provides parents improved access to a greater range of acceptable services, at more competitive day-care arrangements, and within a more realistic and flexible regulatory environment. This tiered system recognizes (1) the licensure of child day-care centers for assuring the maintenance of high day-care standards, (2) family day-care providers licensed or registered under section 3 of this act, and (3) neighbors and friends to provide other options for day-care services to parents and guardians exercising informed choices.

Nothing in this act is intended to affect existing child protection and health and safety laws. This act may be known and cited as the freedom of choice for child day-care services act.

Sec. 2. RCW 74.15.020 and 1995 c 311 s 18 and 1995 c 302 s 3 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

For the purpose of chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031, and unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context thereof, the following terms shall mean:

(1) "Department" means the state department of social and health services;

(2) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services;

(3) "Agency" means any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or facility which receives children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities for control, care, or maintenance outside their own homes, or which places, arranges the placement of, or assists in the placement of children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities for foster care or placement of children for adoption, and shall include the following irrespective of whether there is compensation to the agency or to the children, expectant mothers or persons with developmental disabilities for services rendered:

(a) "Group-care facility" means an agency, other than a foster-family home, which is maintained and operated for the care of a group of children on a twenty-four hour basis;

(b) "Child-placing agency" means an agency which places a child or children for temporary care, continued care, or for adoption;

(c) "Maternity service" means an agency which provides or arranges for care or services to expectant mothers, before or during confinement, or which provides care as needed to mothers and their infants after confinement;

(d) "Child day-care center" means an agency which regularly provides care for a group of children for periods of less than twenty-four hours;

(e) "Family day-care provider" means a child day-care provider who regularly provides child day care for not more than twelve children in the provider's home in the family living quarters;

(f) "Foster-family home" means an agency which regularly provides care on a twenty-four hour basis to one or more children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities in the family abode of the person or persons under whose direct care and supervision the child, expectant mother, or person with a developmental disability is placed;

(g) "Crisis residential center" means an agency which is a temporary protective residential facility operated to perform the duties specified in chapter 13.32A RCW, in the manner provided in RCW 74.13.032 through 74.13.036.

(4) "Agency" shall not include the following:

(a) Persons related to the child, expectant mother, or person with developmental disability in the following ways:

(i) Any blood relative, including those of half-blood, and including first cousins, nephews or nieces, and persons of preceding generations as denoted by prefixes of grand, great, or great-great;

(ii) Stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister;

(iii) A person who legally adopts a child or the child's parent as well as the natural and other legally adopted children of such persons, and other relatives of the adoptive parents in accordance with state law;

(iv) Spouses of any persons named in (i), (ii), or (iii) of this subsection (4)(a), even after the marriage is terminated; or

(v) "Extended family members," as defined by the law or custom of the Indian child's tribe or, in the absence of such law or custom, a person who has reached the age of eighteen and who is the Indian child's grandparent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, niece or nephew, first or second cousin, or stepparent who provides care in the family abode on a twenty-four-hour basis to an Indian child as defined in 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1903(4);

(b) Persons who are legal guardians of the child, expectant mother, or persons with developmental disabilities;

(c) Persons who care for a neighbor's or friend's child or children, with or without compensation, where((: (i) The person providing care for periods of less than twenty-four hours does not conduct such activity on an ongoing, regularly scheduled basis for the purpose of engaging in business, which includes, but is not limited to, advertising such care; or (ii) the parent and person providing care on a twenty-four-hour basis have agreed to the placement in writing and the state is not providing any payment for the care)) the neighbor or friend does not provide child day care for more than six children in the provider's home or advertise child day-care services;

(d) Parents on a mutually cooperative basis exchange care of one another's children;

(e) A person, partnership, corporation, or other entity that provides placement or similar services to exchange students or international student exchange visitors or persons who have the care of an exchange student in their home;

(f) Nursery schools or kindergartens which are engaged primarily in educational work with preschool children and in which no child is enrolled on a regular basis for more than four hours per day;

(g) Schools, including boarding schools, which are engaged primarily in education, operate on a definite school year schedule, follow a stated academic curriculum, accept only school-age children and do not accept custody of children;

(h) Seasonal camps of three months' or less duration engaged primarily in recreational or educational activities;

(i) Hospitals licensed pursuant to chapter 70.41 RCW when performing functions defined in chapter 70.41 RCW, nursing homes licensed under chapter 18.51 RCW and boarding homes licensed under chapter 18.20 RCW;

(j) Licensed physicians or lawyers;

(k) Facilities providing care to children for periods of less than twenty-four hours whose parents remain on the premises to participate in activities other than employment;

(l) Facilities approved and certified under chapter 71A.22 RCW;

(m) Any agency having been in operation in this state ten years prior to June 8, 1967, and not seeking or accepting moneys or assistance from any state or federal agency, and is supported in part by an endowment or trust fund;

(n) Persons who have a child in their home for purposes of adoption, if the child was placed in such home by a licensed child-placing agency, an authorized public or tribal agency or court or if a replacement report has been filed under chapter 26.33 RCW and the placement has been approved by the court;

(o) An agency operated by any unit of local, state, or federal government or an agency, located within the boundaries of a federally recognized Indian reservation, licensed by the Indian tribe;

(p) An agency located on a federal military reservation, except where the military authorities request that such agency be subject to the licensing requirements of this chapter;

(q) Family day-care providers registered with the department under section 3 of this act.

(5) "Requirement" means any rule, regulation, or standard of care to be maintained by an agency.

(6) "Probationary license" means a license issued as a disciplinary measure to an agency that has previously been issued a full license but is out of compliance with licensing standards.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall establish a register for family day-care providers that are not licensed under this chapter. Family day-care providers registered under this section are not subject to the licensing standards.

(2) A parent or guardian accepting day-care services for a child with a registered family day-care provider must sign a declaration, on a form approved by the department, that the parent or guardian understands that the family day-care provider is not licensed and, under the exclusions permissible by law, is not required to meet licensure standards.

(3) Notwithstanding the limitations imposed by law on the number of children served in child day-care facilities, a child day-care center, family day-care provider, or neighbor or friend providing child day-care services may accept additionally one-half as many school-age children before and after school as is specified by the limitation on the total number of children permitted by law to be served in each facility respectively.

(4) The department may revoke or suspend registration under this section if the department finds that a clear and substantial risk affects the health or safety of the child which results in a violation of a child protection or health and safety law leading to a conviction, a finding of a violation of law, an assessment of a fine, or other penalty. The department may suspend a registration upon the filing of a complaint, pending a final determination of the complaint, if the department has reasonable cause to believe an emergency exists that requires immediate attention and such a violation has occurred.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

The department shall monitor the child day-care program for effectiveness and incidence of child health and safety risks, if any, associated with nonlicensed day-care facilities and report its findings and conclusions, together with any recommendations, by January 1, 1997, to the legislature. Legislative standing committees having jurisdiction shall study the effectiveness of the child day-care program in the 1996 interim and hold hearings on the effectiveness of the expanded day-care program to determine how parents are exercising their choices, together with any clear risks to the public health and safety posed in accessing expanded services.