BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to community public health and safety networks; and amending RCW 70.190.005, 70.190.070, and 70.190.080.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 70.190.005 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 301 are each amended to read as follows:

The legislature finds that a primary goal of public involvement in the lives of children has been to strengthen the family unit.

However, the legislature recognizes that traditional two-parent families with one parent routinely at home are now in the minority. In addition, extended family and natural community supports have eroded drastically. The legislature recognizes that public policy assumptions must be altered to account for this new social reality. Public effort must be redirected to expand, support, strengthen, and help reconstruct family and community networks to assist in meeting the needs of children.

The legislature finds that a broad variety of services for children and families has been independently designed over the years and that the coordination and cost-effectiveness of these services will be enhanced through the adoption of an approach that allows communities to prioritize and coordinate services to meet their local needs. The legislature further finds that the most successful programs for reaching and working with at-risk families and children treat individuals' problems in the context of the family, offer a broad spectrum of services, are flexible in the use of program resources, and use staff who are trained in crossing traditional program categories in order to broker services necessary to fully meet a family's needs.

The legislature further finds that eligibility criteria, expenditure restrictions, and reporting requirements of state and federal categorical programs often create barriers toward the effective use of resources for addressing the multiple problems of at-risk families and children.

The purposes of this chapter are (1) to modify public policy and programs to empower communities to support and respond to the needs of ((~~individual families and~~)) children and youth at risk and (2) to improve the responsiveness of services for children and ((~~families~~)) youth at risk by facilitating greater coordination and flexibility in the use of funds by state and local service agencies.

Sec. 2. RCW 70.190.070 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 304 are each amended to read as follows:

The community public health and safety networks shall:

(1) Review state and local public health data and analysis relating to risk factors, protective factors, and at-risk children and youth;

(2) Prioritize the risk factors and protective factors to reduce the likelihood of their children and youth being at risk. The priorities shall be based upon public health data and assessment and policy development standards provided by the department of health under RCW 43.70.555;

(3) Develop long-term comprehensive plans to reduce the rate of at-risk children and youth; set definitive, measurable goals, based upon the department of health standards; and project their desired outcomes;

(4) Distribute funds to local programs that reflect the locally established priorities and as provided in RCW 70.190.140. Except as otherwise authorized in this chapter, local programs shall be directed at at-risk children and youth as the primary recipients of services;

(5) Comply with outcome-based standards;

(6) Cooperate with the department of health and local boards of health to provide data and determine outcomes; and

(7) Coordinate its efforts with anti-drug use efforts and organizations and maintain a high priority for combatting drug use by at-risk youth.

Sec. 3. RCW 70.190.080 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 305 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The community network's plan may include a program to provide postsecondary scholarships to at-risk students who: (a) Are community role models under criteria established by the community network; (b) successfully complete high school; and (c) maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average throughout high school. Funding for the scholarships may include public and private sources.

(2) The community network's plan may also include funding of community-based home visitor programs which are designed to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect ((~~with [within]~~)) within the network. Parents shall sign a voluntary authorization for services, which may be withdrawn at any time. The program may provide parents with education and support either in parents' homes or in other locations comfortable for parents, beginning with the birth of their first baby. The program may make the following services available to the families:

(a) Visits for all expectant or new parents, either at the parent's home or another location with which the parent is comfortable;

(b) Screening before or soon after the birth of a child to assess the family's strengths and goals and define areas of concern in consultation with the family;

(d) Parenting and family support information and referral;

(e) Parent support groups; and

(f) Service coordination for individual families, and assistance with accessing services, provided in a manner that ensures that individual families have only one individual or agency to which they look for service coordination. Where appropriate for a family, service coordination may be conducted through interdisciplinary or interagency teams.

These programs are intended to be voluntary for the parents involved.

(3) The community network may include funding of:

(a) At-risk youth job placement and training programs. The programs shall:

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

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

(iii) Provide career and occupational counseling to each youth recruited;

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

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

(vi) Provide employment and training opportunities that prepare the individual for demand occupations; and

(vii) Include, to the extent possible, collaboration of business, labor, education and training, community organizations, and local government;

(b) Employment assistance, including job development, school-to-work placement, employment readiness training, basic skills, apprenticeships, job mentoring, and private sector and community service employment for at-risk youth;

(c) Education assistance, including tutoring, mentoring, interactions with role models, entrepreneurial education and projects, violence prevention training, safe school strategies, and employment reentry assistance services for at-risk children and youth;

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

(e) Youth coalitions that provide opportunities for at-risk children and youth to develop leadership skills and gain appropriate respect, recognition, and rewards for their positive contribution to their community;

(f) Technical assistance to applicants to increase their organizational capacity and to improve the likelihood of a successful application; and

(g) Technical assistance and training resources to successful applicants.