BILL REQ. #:  S-4893.1 

Read first time 02/01/2006.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to the care and education of children in licensed staffed residential homes; amending RCW 74.15.030; reenacting and amending RCW 74.15.020; adding a new section to chapter 74.15 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 28A.155 RCW; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that staffed residential homes, as currently licensed by the department of social and health services, are a type of group-care facility that provides quality services for children in a home-like setting, including expectant mothers and children with developmental disabilities. The legislature also finds that the children served by licensed staffed residential homes primarily attend public schools, and that their social and educational needs can be better met by collaboration and communication between the school district, the staffed residential home provider, and the department of social and health services. The legislature finds that community integration of children served in licensed staffed residential homes is beneficial to the children, helpful to their educational needs, and builds stronger relationships with community members. The legislature intends that stronger relationships be created between staffed residential homes, school districts, the department of social and health services, and the community, to promote positive social and educational outcomes for children served by staffed residential homes.

Sec. 2   RCW 74.15.020 and 2001 c 230 s 1, 2001 c 144 s 1, and 2001 c 137 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) "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) "Child day-care center" means an agency which regularly provides care for a group of children for periods of less than twenty-four hours;
     (b) "Child-placing agency" means an agency which places a child or children for temporary care, continued care, or for adoption;
     (c) "Community facility" means a group care facility operated for the care of juveniles committed to the department under RCW 13.40.185. A county detention facility that houses juveniles committed to the department under RCW 13.40.185 pursuant to a contract with the department is not a community facility;
     (d) "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;
     (e) "Emergency respite center" is an agency that may be commonly known as a crisis nursery, that provides emergency and crisis care for up to seventy-two hours to children who have been admitted by their parents or guardians to prevent abuse or neglect. Emergency respite centers may operate for up to twenty-four hours a day, and for up to seven days a week. Emergency respite centers may provide care for children ages birth through seventeen, and for persons eighteen through twenty with developmental disabilities who are admitted with a sibling or siblings through age seventeen. Emergency respite centers may not substitute for crisis residential centers or HOPE centers, or any other services defined under this section, and may not substitute for services which are required under chapter 13.32A or 13.34 RCW;
     (f) "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;
     (g) "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;
     (h) "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;
     (i) "HOPE center" means an agency licensed by the secretary to provide temporary residential placement and other services to street youth. A street youth may remain in a HOPE center for thirty days while services are arranged and permanent placement is coordinated. No street youth may stay longer than thirty days unless approved by the department and any additional days approved by the department must be based on the unavailability of a long-term placement option. A street youth whose parent wants him or her returned to home may remain in a HOPE center until his or her parent arranges return of the youth, not longer. All other street youth must have court approval under chapter 13.34 or 13.32A RCW to remain in a HOPE center up to thirty days;
     (j) "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;
     (k) "Responsible living skills program" means an agency licensed by the secretary that provides residential and transitional living services to persons ages sixteen to eighteen who are dependent under chapter 13.34 RCW and who have been unable to live in his or her legally authorized residence and, as a result, the minor lived outdoors or in another unsafe location not intended for occupancy by the minor. Dependent minors ages fourteen and fifteen may be eligible if no other placement alternative is available and the department approves the placement;
     (l) "Service provider" means the entity that operates a community facility;
     (m) "Staffed residential home" means a licensed home providing twenty-four-hour care for six or fewer children or expectant mothers, that employs staff to care for them.
     (2) "Agency" shall not include the following:
     (a) Persons related to the child, expectant mother, or person with developmental disability 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 (2)(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) 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) A person, partnership, corporation, or other entity that provides placement or similar services to international children who have entered the country by obtaining visas that meet the criteria for medical care as established by the United States immigration and naturalization service, or persons who have the care of such an international child in their home;
     (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;
     (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;
     (i) Seasonal camps of three months' or less duration engaged primarily in recreational or educational activities;
     (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;
     (k) Licensed physicians or lawyers;
     (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;
     (m) Facilities approved and certified under chapter 71A.22 RCW;
     (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;
     (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;
     (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;
     (q) A maximum or medium security program for juvenile offenders operated by or under contract with the department;
     (r) 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.
     (3) "Department" means the state department of social and health services.
     (4) "Juvenile" means a person under the age of twenty-one who has been sentenced to a term of confinement under the supervision of the department under RCW 13.40.185.
     (5) "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.
     (6) "Requirement" means any rule, regulation, or standard of care to be maintained by an agency.
     (7) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services.
     (8) "Street youth" means a person under the age of eighteen who lives outdoors or in another unsafe location not intended for occupancy by the minor and who is not residing with his or her parent or at his or her legally authorized residence.
     (9) "Transitional living services" means at a minimum, to the extent funds are available, the following:
     (a) Educational services, including basic literacy and computational skills training, either in local alternative or public high schools or in a high school equivalency program that leads to obtaining a high school equivalency degree;
     (b) Assistance and counseling related to obtaining vocational training or higher education, job readiness, job search assistance, and placement programs;
     (c) Counseling and instruction in life skills such as money management, home management, consumer skills, parenting, health care, access to community resources, and transportation and housing options;
     (d) Individual and group counseling; and
     (e) Establishing networks with federal agencies and state and local organizations such as the United States department of labor, employment and training administration programs including the job training partnership act which administers private industry councils and the job corps; vocational rehabilitation; and volunteer programs.

Sec. 3   RCW 74.15.030 and 2005 c 490 s 11 are each amended to read as follows:
     The secretary shall have the power and it shall be the secretary's duty:
     (1) In consultation with the children's services advisory committee, and with the advice and assistance of persons representative of the various type agencies to be licensed, to designate categories of facilities for which separate or different requirements shall be developed as may be appropriate whether because of variations in the ages, sex and other characteristics of persons served, variations in the purposes and services offered or size or structure of the agencies to be licensed hereunder, or because of any other factor relevant thereto;
     (2) In consultation with the children's services advisory committee, and with the advice and assistance of persons representative of the various type agencies to be licensed, to adopt and publish minimum requirements for licensing applicable to each of the various categories of agencies to be licensed.
     The minimum requirements shall be limited to:
     (a) The size and suitability of a facility and the plan of operation for carrying out the purpose for which an applicant seeks a license;
     (b) The character, suitability and competence of an agency and other persons associated with an agency directly responsible for the care and treatment of children, expectant mothers or developmentally disabled persons. In consultation with law enforcement personnel, the secretary shall investigate the conviction record or pending charges and dependency record information under chapter 43.43 RCW of each agency and its staff seeking licensure or relicensure. No unfounded allegation of child abuse or neglect as defined in RCW 26.44.020 may be disclosed to a child-placing agency, private adoption agency, or any other provider licensed under this chapter. In order to determine the suitability of applicants for an agency license, licensees, their employees, and other persons who have unsupervised access to children in care, and who have not resided in the state of Washington during the three-year period before being authorized to care for children shall be fingerprinted. The fingerprints shall be forwarded to the Washington state patrol and federal bureau of investigation for a criminal history records check. The fingerprint criminal history records checks will be at the expense of the licensee except that in the case of a foster family home, if this expense would work a hardship on the licensee, the department shall pay the expense. The licensee may not pass this cost on to the employee or prospective employee, unless the employee is determined to be unsuitable due to his or her criminal history record. The secretary shall use the information solely for the purpose of determining eligibility for a license and for determining the character, suitability, and competence of those persons or agencies, excluding parents, not required to be licensed who are authorized to care for children, expectant mothers, and developmentally disabled persons. Criminal justice agencies shall provide the secretary such information as they may have and that the secretary may require for such purpose;
     (c) The number of qualified persons required to render the type of care and treatment for which an agency seeks a license;
     (d) The safety, cleanliness, and general adequacy of the premises to provide for the comfort, care and well-being of children, expectant mothers or developmentally disabled persons;
     (e) The provision of necessary care, including food, clothing, supervision and discipline; physical, mental and social well-being; and educational, recreational and spiritual opportunities for those served;
     (f) The financial ability of an agency to comply with minimum requirements established pursuant to chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031; ((and))
     (g) The maintenance of records pertaining to the admission, progress, health and discharge of persons served; and
     (h) Additional requirements pertaining to staffed residential homes as provided in section 4 of this act.
     (3) To investigate any person, including relatives by blood or marriage except for parents, for character, suitability, and competence in the care and treatment of children, expectant mothers, and developmentally disabled persons prior to authorizing that person to care for children, expectant mothers, and developmentally disabled persons. However, if a child is placed with a relative under RCW 13.34.065 or 13.34.130, and if such relative appears otherwise suitable and competent to provide care and treatment the criminal history background check required by this section need not be completed before placement, but shall be completed as soon as possible after placement;
     (4) On reports of alleged child abuse and neglect, to investigate agencies in accordance with chapter 26.44 RCW, including child day-care centers and family day-care homes, to determine whether the alleged abuse or neglect has occurred, and whether child protective services or referral to a law enforcement agency is appropriate;
     (5) To issue, revoke, or deny licenses to agencies pursuant to chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031. Licenses shall specify the category of care which an agency is authorized to render and the ages, sex and number of persons to be served;
     (6) To prescribe the procedures and the form and contents of reports necessary for the administration of chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031 and to require regular reports from each licensee;
     (7) To inspect agencies periodically to determine whether or not there is compliance with chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031 and the requirements adopted hereunder;
     (8) To review requirements adopted hereunder at least every two years and to adopt appropriate changes after consultation with affected groups for child day-care requirements and with the children's services advisory committee for requirements for other agencies; and
     (9) To consult with public and private agencies in order to help them improve their methods and facilities for the care of children, expectant mothers and developmentally disabled persons.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:
     In order to promote positive social and educational outcomes for the children in their care, the secretary shall require that staffed residential homes for children provide the following to receive a new license or renew an existing license:
     (1) A collaboration plan with the local school district, to promote communication and information sharing about how to best care for the children at the staffed residential home;
     (2) A community integration plan, to demonstrate how children served at the staffed residential home will have a level of interaction with the community commensurate with their placement in a community-based setting rather than an institution; and
     (3) A process to conduct community outreach about the needs of the children in the agency's care, their rights, and ways in which the children and the community can be more integrated and positively interact.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   A new section is added to chapter 28A.155 RCW to read as follows:
     In order to foster stronger community relationships and education outcomes of students in staffed residential homes, the superintendent of public instruction shall:
     (1) Assign a staff position to provide technical assistance to school districts in developing collaboration plans described in section 4 of this act and in developing applications for the special education safety net;
     (2) Continue to review and update the criteria for making awards through the special education safety net process for school districts that can convincingly demonstrate the impact of staffed residential homes on the districts' special education program; and
     (3) Develop a funding formula that in lieu of special education excess cost funding for staffed residential home students placed by the department of social and health services provides an allocation to cover the concentrated number of students in special education with high needs residing in staffed residential homes. This funding formula shall include allocating the funding based on a rate of three times the statewide average per pupil expenditure, minus the school district's basic education allocation, per staffed residential home placement. School districts are eligible to pursue safety net funding beyond this allocation so that the combined basic education allocation, concentration allocation, and safety net grant recognize the sometimes high cost of serving staffed residential home students concentrated in a few school districts by the state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this act in its application to the agencies concerned. Rules adopted under this act must meet federal requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the state.