BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to public assistance; amending RCW 74.12.340; reenacting and amending RCW 74.15.020; adding new sections to chapter 74.12 RCW; creating new sections; repealing RCW 74.12.420; and prescribing penalties.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. It is the intent of the legislature to establish as a state goal the delivery of transitional public assistance. The goal should commit the state to supporting eligible families seeking state financial assistance in times of financial need on a temporary time-limited basis. Furthermore, the state should help eligible families solve their problems through relationships rather than through increased use of taxpayers money.

In addition, it is the intent of this act to encourage the development of positive relationships among people on public assistance, to stabilize family life, improve the health and well-being of women, men, and children, and increase the likelihood of marriage.

It is the intent of the state of Washington to provide temporary transition public assistance to families with children who are experiencing financial hardship. This financial aid is time‑limited and intended to provide financial support while a family finds stable work. The legislature finds that a time limitation on public assistance coupled with an immediate but gradual reduction in grant amounts is more beneficial to establishing self-sufficiency than are other public assistance programs.

Single parents raising children are more likely to be living in poverty than two-parent families. Common sense tells us that when single women and children live communally with other women their ability to reduce their dependency on public assistance and improve the health and safety of their children is increased. Requiring recipients to live with other recipients of the same gender on public assistance will reduce the state's expenditures for child care by enabling them to share child care responsibilities and to share living expenses. Single parents raising children alone on public assistance is expensive and difficult. Child care costs are high and parents are isolated from the support of other adults. In hard financial times common sense tells us that people make sacrifices for their children and the state has a responsibility to establish a system of transitional services that places the greatest responsibility for self-sufficiency on the parents of children in need.

To further this goal, when an individual seeks temporary financial aid from the state it is in the individual's best interest and the best interest of the individual's children to make choices regarding their living situation. The state must provide the opportunity for parents to make the best use of the taxpayers' money that is provided to them by the working citizens of this state. Furthermore, it is in the best interest of children living on public assistance to be cared for by people who are selected by their parents.

A family that shares living expenses such as rent, heating, electricity, phone, and water will have greater discretion in the use of its combined benefits, yielding more money for other needs of children. In addition, it is more economical to live as a group than to live as an individual, which is known to all married couples. Therefore, as a requirement to receive a larger financial grant from the state, a recipient must make a choice to either live communally with other recipients of the same gender in housing of his or her choice or to receive a reduced financial grant.

It is the intent of the legislature that the temporary assistance for needy families program encourage marriage. The legislature finds that ninety-five and two‑tenths of one percent of Washington parents expressed the belief that divorce is harmful to children.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A family or assistance unit is not eligible to participate in the shared housing arrangement provided for in section 3 of this act if the recipient is a minor.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A recipient under eighteen years of age, unmarried, and either pregnant or having a dependent child or children in the recipient's care is eligible for a grant equal to fifty percent of the payment standard based on family size.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. SHARED HOUSING ARRANGEMENT. (1) A family or assistance unit is not eligible for a full welfare grant in any month if for that month the family or assistance unit cannot prove to the department that it is complying with the shared housing arrangement requirements under this section.

(2) Within the first ninety days after eligibility is determined, an unmarried recipient of temporary assistance for needy families must show proof as determined by department rule that he or she is living with another public assistance recipient of the same gender. If the recipient proves that he or she is participating in the shared housing arrangement the recipient is eligible for the full public assistance grant for up to an additional six months. Each quarter thereafter, the financial grant for the assistance unit shall be reduced by twenty-five percent until a total of twenty-seven months has passed, at which time the recipient is no longer eligible for public assistance for two hundred thirteen months.

(3) The department shall provide individuals choosing to participate in the shared housing arrangement with a preprinted post card on which to list their name, address, phone number, and ages of children of the recipient. The department shall also provide a one‑sheet public information guide as a public service to help recipients in interviewing other recipients for a shared housing arrangement. The public information guide shall provide questions that will help recipients in developing successful, long-term, mutually beneficial relationships in a shared housing arrangement, but shall not place the state in the position of any responsibility for approving or disapproving any shared housing arrangement relationship.

(4) If after ninety days a recipient has not declared that he or she wishes to participate in a shared housing arrangement, the recipient is eligible for fifty percent of the financial benefits for which he or she is eligible beginning on the following month and for up to an additional twelve months of eligibility, at which point his or her grant shall be reduced each quarter by twenty-five percent for the remaining twelve months of eligibility, at which time the recipient is ineligible for public assistance for two hundred thirteen months. In any month that the recipient can show proof that he or she is living in an approved shared living arrangement, the recipient is eligible for the full grant that he or she will receive on the first day of the following month.

(5) If a recipient moves out of a shared housing arrangement and makes the remaining members of the shared housing arrangement ineligible for the full grant, the remaining recipient has sixty days to locate another recipient of the same gender to create a shared housing arrangement to continue in order to participate in the benefits of the shared housing arrangement.

(6) Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, as used in sections 2 through 10 of this act, "shared housing arrangement" means the living situation where an eligible unmarried recipient, as part of the requirements of eligibility for temporary assistance for needy families grants, lives with no more than three recipients of public assistance of the same gender in order to receive a full public assistance grant. The household may not be larger than six individuals and be eligible for increased benefits under the shared housing arrangement.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. ADDITIONAL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS‑‑SHARED HOUSING ARRANGEMENT‑‑PARTIAL GRANT. (1) Proof that a recipient of public assistance under chapter 74.08 RCW is living in a shared housing arrangement with another recipient of public assistance eligible to receive assistance under chapter 74.08 RCW may be established as provided by the rules of the department.

(2) If an applicant is unable to establish proof of living situation, he or she is eligible for fifty percent of the financial grant he or she would otherwise be eligible for twelve months. Thereafter, the grant shall be reduced by twenty-five percent each quarter.

(3) A recipient who willfully makes a false statement as to his or her living situation is guilty of an unlawful practice under RCW 74.08.331.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. TRANSITIONAL SERVICES‑‑TIME LIMITS‑‑GRANT REDUCTIONS. The legislature finds that it is in the public's interest that recipients on public assistance use state financial resources only as transitional financial assistance as they work toward self-sufficiency. To provide incentives for long-term recipients to leave public assistance and accept paid employment, the legislature finds it is necessary to reduce recipients' dependence on financial grants from the state gradually by reducing the amount of these grants by twenty percent each six months over a twenty-four month period. This reduction may be replaced with income earned in unsubsidized employment with no loss of eligibility. Recipients of public assistance under this chapter may retain seventy-five cents of every dollar they earn while working in gainful employment while receiving public assistance and not lose eligibility for the entire period of time they are eligible for and are receiving public assistance.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. DURATION OF ELIGIBILITY. Recipients of public assistance are eligible for a total of twenty-seven months of public assistance in a lifetime, except that an individual may receive an additional twenty-seven months of public assistance after two hundred thirteen months have elapsed from the last day of the initial period of eligibility.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. RESUMPTION OF ELIGIBILITY. If a public assistance recipient terminates eligibility for public assistance for any reason other than welfare fraud before the recipient's twenty-seven months are completed, the recipient may reapply and if found eligible may receive a financial grant from the transitional public assistance program for an amount equal to the amount of the grant received in the last month in which the recipient was previously eligible, subject to statutory reductions.

If the recipient has received a lump sum payment under section 9 of this act, four months shall be added to the actual number of months the recipient has received public assistance, and this number shall be used in determining eligibility under this section for a financial grant from the transitional public assistance program.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. EFFECT OF MARRIAGE. If a recipient of public assistance marries, ends eligibility for public assistance, and lives with and remains married to his or her spouse as a legally married couple for twelve months, the recipient shall receive a lump sum check at that time from the state for four times the monthly financial benefit level he or she would have received immediately following the marriage had he or she remained on public assistance.

If the recipient receives a lump sum payment under this section, four months shall be added to determine the number of months for which the recipient received public assistance, as provided in section 8 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. NONCITIZENS. (1) It is the intent of the legislature that new immigrants to Washington state provide for themselves and their families. It is the intent of the legislature to limit access to certain public assistance benefits by noncitizens.

(2) Noncitizens are not eligible for financial grants; medical assistance; food stamps; or nutrition services including school lunches, breakfasts, child care nutrition programs, and women, infant, and children's nutrition program.

Sec. 11. RCW 74.12.340 and 1973 1st ex.s. c 154 s 111 are each amended to read as follows:

The department ((~~is authorized to promulgate~~)) may adopt rules ((~~and regulations~~)) governing the provision of day care as a part of child welfare services when the secretary determines that a need exists for such day care and that it is in the best interests of the child, the parents, or the custodial parent and in determining the need for such day care priority shall be given to geographical areas having the greatest need for such care and to members of low income groups in the population: PROVIDED, That where the family is financially able to pay part or all of the costs of such care, fees shall be imposed and paid according to the financial ability of the family. Recipients participating in a shared housing arrangement under section 5 of this act are eligible for state or federally funded child care.

Sec. 12. 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 disabilities 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;

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

(e) Parents who are recipients of public assistance living in a shared living arrangement under section 4 of this act who care for each others' children;

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

((~~(i)~~)) (j) 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)~~)) (k) Licensed physicians or lawyers;

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

((~~(m)~~)) (n) 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)~~)) (o) 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)~~)) (p) 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)~~)) (q) 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.

(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. 13. RCW 74.12.420 and 1994 c 299 s 9 are each repealed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 14. Captions used in sections 4 through 10 of this act do not constitute any part of the law.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 15. Sections 2 through 10 of this act are each added to chapter 74.12 RCW.