BILL REQ. #:  S-0738.1 

Read first time 02/03/2003.   Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to victims of family violence among applicants and recipients of temporary assistance for needy families; and amending RCW 74.08A.010, 74.08A.260, 74.08A.270, 74.08A.275, and 74.08A.280.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 74.08A.010 and 1997 c 58 s 103 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A family that includes an adult who has received temporary assistance for needy families for sixty months after July 27, 1997, shall be ineligible for further temporary assistance for needy families assistance.
     (2) For the purposes of applying the rules of this section, the department shall count any month in which an adult family member received a temporary assistance for needy families cash assistance grant unless the assistance was provided when the family member was a minor child and not the head of the household or married to the head of the household.
     (3) The department shall refer recipients who require specialized assistance to appropriate department programs, crime victims' programs through the department of community, trade, and economic development, community-based domestic violence or sexual assault programs, or the crime victims' compensation program of the department of labor and industries.
     (4) The department may exempt a recipient and the recipient's family from the application of subsection (1) of this section by reason of hardship ((or if the recipient meets the family violence options of section 402(A)(7) of Title IVA of the federal social security act as amended by P.L. 104-193)). The number of recipients and their families exempted ((from)) under this subsection (((1) of this section)) for a fiscal year shall not exceed twenty percent of the average monthly number of recipients and their families to which assistance is provided under the temporary assistance for needy families program.
     (5) The department shall exempt a recipient and the recipient's family from the application of subsection (1) of this section if the recipient meets the family violence options of section 402 (A)(7) of Title IVA of the federal social security act as amended by P.L. 104-193.
     (6) The department shall not exempt a recipient and his or her family from the application of subsection (1) of this section until after the recipient has received fifty-two months of assistance under this chapter.

Sec. 2   RCW 74.08A.260 and 1997 c 58 s 313 are each amended to read as follows:
     Recipients who have not obtained paid, unsubsidized employment by the end of the job search ((component authorized in section 312 of this act)) shall be referred to a work activity.
     (1) Each recipient shall be assessed immediately upon completion of the job search component. Assessments shall be based upon factors that are critical to obtaining employment, including but not limited to education, employment strengths, ((and)) employment history, and history or risk of domestic violence. Assessments may be performed by the department or by a contracted entity. The assessment shall be based on a uniform, consistent, transferable format that will be accepted by all agencies and organizations serving the recipient. Based on the assessment, an individual responsibility plan shall be prepared that: (a) Sets forth an employment goal and a plan for moving the recipient immediately into employment; (b) contains the obligation of the recipient to become and remain employed; (c) moves the recipient into whatever employment the recipient is capable of handling as quickly as possible; and (d) describes the services available to the recipient to enable the recipient to obtain and keep employment.
     (2) Recipients who are not engaged in work and work activities, and do not qualify for a good cause exemption under RCW 74.08A.270, shall engage in self-directed service as provided in RCW 74.08A.330.
     (3) If a recipient refuses to engage in work and work activities required by the department, the family's grant shall be reduced by the recipient's share, and may, if the department determines it appropriate, be terminated.
     (4) The department may waive the penalties required under subsection (3) of this section, subject to a finding that the recipient refused to engage in work for good cause provided in RCW 74.08A.270.
     (5) In implementing this section, the department shall assign the highest priority to the most employable clients, including adults in two-parent families and parents in single-parent families that include older preschool or school-age children to be engaged in work activities.
     (6) In consultation with the recipient, the department or contractor shall place the recipient into a work activity that is available in the local area where the recipient resides.

Sec. 3   RCW 74.08A.270 and 2002 c 89 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Good cause reasons for failure to participate in WorkFirst program components include:
     (a) Situations where the recipient is a parent or other relative personally providing care for a child under the age of six years, and formal or informal child care, or day care for an incapacitated individual living in the same home as a dependent child, is necessary for an individual to participate or continue participation in the program or accept employment, and such care is not available, and the department fails to provide such care; ((or))
     (b) The recipient is a parent with a child under the age of one year, except that at the time a child reaches the age of three months, the recipient is required to participate in one of the following for up to twenty hours per week:
     (i) Instruction or training which has the purpose of improving parenting skills or child well-being;
     (ii) Preemployment or job readiness training;
     (iii) Course study leading to a high school diploma or GED; or
     (iv) Volunteering in a child care facility licensed under chapter 74.15 RCW so long as the child care facility agrees to accept the recipient as a volunteer and the child without compensation while the parent is volunteering at the facility. The volunteer recipient and his or her child shall not be counted for the purposes of determining licensed capacity or the staff to child ratio of the facility; or
     (c) If the recipient is a past or present victim of family violence and participation in WorkFirst program components would make it more difficult for the individual to escape family violence, unfairly penalize the individual for being or having been a victim of family violence, or place the individual at risk of further family violence.
     (2) Nothing in this section shall prevent a recipient from participating fully in the WorkFirst program on a voluntary basis. A recipient who chooses to participate fully in the WorkFirst program shall be considered to be fulfilling the requirements of this section.
     (3) For any recipient who claims a good cause reason for failure to participate in the WorkFirst program based on the fact that the recipient has a child under the age of one year, the department shall, within existing resources, conduct an assessment of the recipient within ninety days and before a job search component is initiated in order to determine if the recipient has any specific service needs or employment barriers. The assessment may include identifying the need for substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, or domestic violence services, and shall be used in developing the recipient's individual responsibility plan.
     (4) A parent may only receive the exemption under subsection (1)(b) of this section one time, for one child.

Sec. 4   RCW 74.08A.275 and 1999 c 340 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Each recipient approved to receive temporary assistance for needy families shall be subject to an employability screening after determination of program eligibility and before referral to job search. Each recipient will also be screened for family violence and notified of deferrals and exemptions from WorkFirst program requirements for family violence victims. If the employability screening determines the recipient is not employable, or meets the criteria specified in RCW 74.08A.270 for a good cause exemption to work requirements, the department shall defer the job search requirement under RCW 74.08A.285 and refer the recipient immediately to the assessment procedure required under RCW 74.08A.260.

Sec. 5   RCW 74.08A.280 and 1997 c 58 s 315 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The legislature finds that moving those eligible for assistance to self-sustaining employment is a goal of the WorkFirst program. It is the intent of WorkFirst to aid a participant's progress to self-sufficiency by allowing flexibility within the statewide program to reflect community resources, the local characteristics of the labor market, and the composition of the caseload. Program success will be enhanced through effective coordination at regional and local levels, involving employers, labor representatives, educators, community leaders, local governments, and social service providers.
     (2) The department, through its regional offices, shall collaborate with employers, recipients, frontline workers, educational institutions, labor, private industry councils, the work force training and education coordinating board, community rehabilitation employment programs, employment and training agencies, local governments, the employment security department, ((and)) community action agencies, and family violence programs to develop work programs that are effective and work in their communities. For planning purposes, the department shall collect and make accessible to regional offices successful work program models from around the United States, including the employment partnership program, apprenticeship programs, microcredit, microenterprise, self-employment, and W-2 Wisconsin works. Work programs shall incorporate local volunteer citizens in their planning and implementation phases to ensure community relevance and success.
     (3) To reduce administrative costs and to ensure equal statewide access to services, the department may develop contracts for statewide welfare-to-work services. These statewide contracts shall support regional flexibility and ensure that resources follow local labor market opportunities and recipients' needs.
     (4) The secretary shall establish WorkFirst service areas for purposes of planning WorkFirst programs and for distributing WorkFirst resources. Service areas shall reflect department regions.
     (5) By July 31st of each odd-numbered year, a plan for the WorkFirst program shall be developed for each region. The plan shall be prepared in consultation with local and regional sources, adapting the statewide WorkFirst program to achieve maximum effect for the participants and the communities within which they reside. Local consultation shall include to the greatest extent possible input from local and regional planning bodies for social services and work force development. The regional and local administrator shall consult with employers of various sizes, labor representatives, training and education providers, program participants, economic development organizations, community organizations, tribes, and local governments in the preparation of the service area plan.
     (6) The secretary has final authority in plan approval or modification. Regional program implementation may deviate from the statewide program if specified in a service area plan, as approved by the secretary.