Read first time 01/20/2006.   Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services.

     AN ACT Relating to the safety of child protective, child welfare, and adult protective services workers; amending RCW 9A.46.110; adding a new section to chapter 74.04 RCW; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that employees of the department of social and health services who provide child protective, child welfare, and adult protective services are sometimes faced with highly volatile, hostile, and/or threatening situations during the course of performing their official duties. The legislature finds that the work group convened by the department of social and health services pursuant to chapter 389, Laws of 2005, has made various recommendations regarding policies and protocols to address the safety of workers. The legislature intends to implement the work group's recommendations for statutory changes in recognition of the sometimes hazardous nature of employment in child protective, child welfare, and adult protective services.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 74.04 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) For purposes of this section only, "assault" means an unauthorized touching of a child protective, child welfare, or adult protective services worker employed by the department of social and health services resulting in physical injury to the employee.
     (2) In recognition of the hazardous nature of employment in child protective, child welfare, and adult protective services, the legislature hereby provides a supplementary program to reimburse employees of the department, for some of their costs attributable to their being the victims of assault while in the course of discharging their assigned duties. This program shall be limited to the reimbursement provided in this section.
     (3) An employee is only entitled to receive the reimbursement provided in this section if the secretary of social and health services, or the secretary's designee, finds that each of the following has occurred:
     (a) A person has assaulted the employee while the employee was in the course of performing his or her official duties and, as a result thereof, the employee has sustained demonstrated physical injuries which have required the employee to miss days of work;
     (b) The assault cannot be attributable to any extent to the employee's negligence, misconduct, or failure to comply with any rules or conditions of employment; and
     (c) The department of labor and industries has approved the employee's workers' compensation application pursuant to chapter 51.32 RCW.
     (4) The reimbursement authorized under this section shall be as follows:
     (a) The employee's accumulated sick leave days shall not be reduced for the workdays missed;
     (b) For each workday missed for which the employee is not eligible to receive compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW, the employee shall receive full pay; and
     (c) In respect to workdays missed for which the employee will receive or has received compensation under chapter 51.32 RCW, the employee shall be reimbursed in an amount which, when added to that compensation, will result in the employee receiving full pay for the workdays missed.
     (5) Reimbursement under this section may not last longer than three hundred sixty-five consecutive days after the date of the injury.
     (6) The employee shall not be entitled to the reimbursement provided in subsection (4) of this section for any workday for which the secretary, or the secretary's designee, finds that the employee has not diligently pursued his or her compensation remedies under chapter 51.32 RCW.
     (7) The reimbursement shall only be made for absences which the secretary, or the secretary's designee, believes are justified.
     (8) While the employee is receiving reimbursement under this section, he or she shall continue to be classified as a state employee and the reimbursement amount shall be considered as salary or wages.
     (9) All reimbursement payments required to be made to employees under this section shall be made by the department. The payments shall be considered as a salary or wage expense and shall be paid by the department in the same manner and from the same appropriations as other salary and wage expenses of the department.
     (10) Should the legislature revoke the reimbursement authorized under this section or repeal this section, no affected employee is entitled thereafter to receive the reimbursement as a matter of contractual right.

Sec. 3   RCW 9A.46.110 and 2003 c 53 s 70 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) A person commits the crime of stalking if, without lawful authority and under circumstances not amounting to a felony attempt of another crime:
     (a) He or she intentionally and repeatedly harasses or repeatedly follows another person; and
     (b) The person being harassed or followed is placed in fear that the stalker intends to injure the person, another person, or property of the person or of another person. The feeling of fear must be one that a reasonable person in the same situation would experience under all the circumstances; and
     (c) The stalker either:
     (i) Intends to frighten, intimidate, or harass the person; or
     (ii) Knows or reasonably should know that the person is afraid, intimidated, or harassed even if the stalker did not intend to place the person in fear or intimidate or harass the person.
     (2)(a) It is not a defense to the crime of stalking under subsection (1)(c)(i) of this section that the stalker was not given actual notice that the person did not want the stalker to contact or follow the person; and
     (b) It is not a defense to the crime of stalking under subsection (1)(c)(ii) of this section that the stalker did not intend to frighten, intimidate, or harass the person.
     (3) It shall be a defense to the crime of stalking that the defendant is a licensed private investigator acting within the capacity of his or her license as provided by chapter 18.165 RCW.
     (4) Attempts to contact or follow the person after being given actual notice that the person does not want to be contacted or followed constitutes prima facie evidence that the stalker intends to intimidate or harass the person. "Contact" includes, in addition to any other form of contact or communication, the sending of an electronic communication to the person.
     (5)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, a person who stalks another person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
     (b) A person who stalks another is guilty of a class C felony if any of the following applies: (i) The stalker has previously been convicted in this state or any other state of any crime of harassment, as defined in RCW 9A.46.060, of the same victim or members of the victim's family or household or any person specifically named in a protective order; (ii) the stalking violates any protective order protecting the person being stalked; (iii) the stalker has previously been convicted of a gross misdemeanor or felony stalking offense under this section for stalking another person; (iv) the stalker was armed with a deadly weapon, as defined in RCW 9.94A.602, while stalking the person; (v) the stalker's victim is or was a law enforcement officer, judge, juror, attorney, victim advocate, legislator, ((or)) community correction's officer, or an employee of the child protective, child welfare, or adult protective services division within the department of social and health services, and the stalker stalked the victim to retaliate against the victim for an act the victim performed during the course of official duties or to influence the victim's performance of official duties; or (vi) the stalker's victim is a current, former, or prospective witness in an adjudicative proceeding, and the stalker stalked the victim to retaliate against the victim as a result of the victim's testimony or potential testimony.
     (6) As used in this section:
     (a) "Follows" means deliberately maintaining visual or physical proximity to a specific person over a period of time. A finding that the alleged stalker repeatedly and deliberately appears at the person's home, school, place of employment, business, or any other location to maintain visual or physical proximity to the person is sufficient to find that the alleged stalker follows the person. It is not necessary to establish that the alleged stalker follows the person while in transit from one location to another.
     (b) "Harasses" means unlawful harassment as defined in RCW 10.14.020.
     (c) "Protective order" means any temporary or permanent court order prohibiting or limiting violence against, harassment of, contact or communication with, or physical proximity to another person.
     (d) "Repeatedly" means on two or more separate occasions.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   The department of social and health services shall report to the governor and the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2006, on the implementation of those recommendations contained in the department's October 2005 report entitled child protective services - staff safety.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   Section 4 of this act expires January 1, 2007.