BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to child care; amending RCW 74.13.0903 and 74.25.040; creating a new section; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 74.13.0903 and 1993 c 453 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

The office of child care policy is established to operate under the authority of the department of social and health services. The duties and responsibilities of the office include, but are not limited to, the following, within appropriated funds:

(1) Staff and assist the child care coordinating committee in the implementation of its duties under RCW 74.13.090;

(2) Work in conjunction with the state-wide child care resource and referral network as well as local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and community child care advocates to create local child care resource and referral organizations. These organizations may carry out needs assessments, resource development, provider training, technical assistance, and parent information and training;

(3) Actively seek public and private money for distribution as grants to the state-wide child care resource and referral network and to existing or potential local child care resource and referral organizations;

(4) Adopt rules regarding the application for and distribution of grants to local child care resource and referral organizations. The rules shall, at a minimum, require an applicant to submit a plan for achieving the following objectives:

(a) Provide parents with information about child care resources, including location of services and subsidies;

(b) Carry out child care provider recruitment and training programs, including training under RCW 74.25.040;

(d) Provide information for businesses regarding child care supply and demand;

(e) Advocate for increased public and private sector resources devoted to child care; ((~~and~~))

(f) Provide technical assistance to employers regarding employee child care services; and

(g) Serve recipients of temporary assistance for needy families and working parents with incomes at or below household incomes of one hundred seventy-five percent of the federal poverty line;

(5) Provide staff support and technical assistance to the state-wide child care resource and referral network and local child care resource and referral organizations;

(6) Maintain a state-wide child care licensing data bank and work with department of social and health services licensors to provide information to local child care resource and referral organizations about licensed child care providers in the state;

(7) Through the state-wide child care resource and referral network and local resource and referral organizations, compile data about local child care needs and availability for future planning and development;

(8) Coordinate with the state-wide child care resource and referral network and local child care resource and referral organizations for the provision of training and technical assistance to child care providers; and

(9) Collect and assemble information regarding the availability of insurance and of federal and other child care funding to assist state and local agencies, businesses, and other child care providers in offering child care services.

Sec. 2. RCW 74.25.040 and 1994 c 299 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Recipients of ((~~aid to families with dependent children~~)) temporary assistance for needy families who are not participating in an education or work training program may volunteer to work in a licensed child care facility, or other willing volunteer work site. Licensed child care facilities participating in this effort shall provide care for the recipient's children and provide for the development of positive child care skills.

(2) The department shall train two hundred fifty recipients of temporary assistance for needy families to become family child care providers or child care center teachers. The department shall offer the training in rural and urban communities. The department shall adopt rules to implement the child care training program in this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect July 1, 1997.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 1997, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.