H-1074.3  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 1758

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Representative Boldt

Read first time 02/07/97.  Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services.

Changing provisions relating to the family policy council.

    AN ACT Relating to the family policy council; amending RCW 70.190.005, 70.190.040, and 70.190.070; adding a new section to chapter 70.190 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.300 RCW; recodifying RCW 70.190.040; and repealing RCW 70.190.050, 70.190.060, 70.190.065, 70.190.075, 70.190.080, 70.190.085, 70.190.090, 70.190.100, 70.190.110, 70.190.120, 70.190.130, 70.190.150, 70.190.160, 70.190.170, 70.190.180, and 70.190.190.

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)) associations 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)) a common approach ((that allows communities to prioritize and coordinate services to meet their local needs)) to their delivery.  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 (2) to improve the responsiveness of services for children and families at risk by facilitating greater coordination and flexibility in the use of funds by state and local service agencies.

    Sec. 2.  RCW 70.190.040 and 1993 c 336 s 901 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) The legislature finds that helping children to arrive at school ready to learn is an important part of improving student learning.

    (2) To the extent funds are appropriated, the ((family policy council)) superintendent of public instruction shall award grants to community-based consortiums that submit comprehensive plans that include strategies to improve readiness to learn.

    Sec. 3.  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; and

    (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;

    (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)).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  A new section is added to chapter 70.190 RCW to read as follows:

    A county that contains one or more public health and safety networks on the effective date of this section may retain the network and use it to develop additional long-term comprehensive plans as provided in RCW 70.190.070.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.  RCW 70.190.040 is recodified as a new section in chapter 28A.300 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.  The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:

(1) RCW 70.190.050 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 207;

(2) RCW 70.190.060 and 1996 c 132 s 3 & 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 303;

(3) RCW 70.190.065 and 1996 c 132 s 5;

(4) RCW 70.190.075 and 1996 c 132 s 4;

(5) RCW 70.190.080 and 1996 c 132 s 6 & 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 305;

(6) RCW 70.190.085 and 1994 c 299 s 5;

(7) RCW 70.190.090 and 1996 c 132 s 7 & 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 306;

(8) RCW 70.190.100 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 307;

(9) RCW 70.190.110 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 308;

(10) RCW 70.190.120 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 309;

(11) RCW 70.190.130 and 1996 c 132 s 8 & 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 310;

(12) RCW 70.190.150 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 312;

(13) RCW 70.190.160 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 314;

(14) RCW 70.190.170 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 320;

(15) RCW 70.190.180 and 1994 sp.s. c 7 s 604; and

(16) RCW 70.190.190 and 1996 c 132 s 9.

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