| Washington State House of Representatives Office of Program Research |
BILL ANALYSIS |
| Early Learning & Children's Services Committee | |
SB 6891
This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in
their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a
statement of legislative intent.
Brief Description: Requiring certain hiring and training practices for children's administration social workers.
Sponsors: Senators Stevens, Hargrove, Carrell, Brandland and Roach.
Brief Summary of Bill |
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Hearing Date: 2/26/08
Staff: Sydney Forrester (786-7120).
Background:
The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) utilizes four job classifications of social
worker. According to a recent study published by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review
Committee (JLARC), while the DSHS uses all four classifications, Social Worker 1 and 2
classifications are seldom used because the DSHS has established the Social Worker 3
classification (SW3C) as the "goal class" for caseworkers. As of July 2003, about 76 percent of
Children's Administration (CA) caseworkers were SW3Cs.
According to the job description published by the Department of Personnel, Social Worker 1s
(SW1Cs) receive training for the first six months of employment and then are assigned cases. As
a component of their training program, the SW1Cs are to assist professional level staff with
cases that will enable them to experience a full range of division-specific service functions.
Social Worker 2s (SW2Cs) can provide risk assessment intake, perform routine licensing
functions and other indirect services to clients such as service eligibility determinations for
out-of-home placements and case plan monitoring.
Summary of Bill:
When hiring social workers, the DSHS must ensure that 15 percent of those hired at any given
time are SW1Cs and SW2Cs. The DSHS is to establish a training process for SW1Cs and
SW2Cs to become SW3Cs.
The training must include assigning tasks and duties that are required preparation for the duties
of SW3Cs; include data processing responsibilities; and require attendance at meetings on behalf
of case carrying social workers. The training process is to be designed to remediate the current
workload of SW3Cs. The CA may assign SW1Cs and SW2Cs other tasks within their
classification that relieve case carrying social workers of their workload.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.