BILL REQ. #:  H-3942.1 

Read first time 01/12/10.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & Children's Services.

     AN ACT Relating to creating the home visiting services account; adding a new section to chapter 43.215 RCW; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 43.215 RCW to read as follows:
     (1)(a) The home visiting services account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. Revenues to the account shall consist of appropriations by the legislature and all other sources deposited in the account.
     (b) Expenditures from the account may be used only for state matching funds for the purposes of the program established in this section including administrative expenses. Only the director, or the director's designee, may authorize expenditures from the account. Authorizations for expenditures may be given only after private funds are committed and available.
     (c) Expenditures from the account are exempt from the appropriations and allotment provisions of chapter 43.88 RCW. However, amounts used for program administration by the department are subject to the allotment and budgetary controls of chapter 43.88 RCW, and an appropriation is required for these expenditures.
     (2) The department must expend moneys from the account to provide state matching funds for partnership activities to implement home visiting services and the infrastructure necessary to develop, support, and evaluate evidence-based, research-based, and promising home visiting programs.
     (3) Activities eligible for funding through the account include, but are not limited to:
     (a) Home visiting services to enhance child development and well-being by alleviating the effects on child development of poverty and other known risk factors, to reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect, and to promote school readiness for young children and their families; and
     (b) Development and maintenance of the infrastructure for home visiting programs, including training, quality improvement, and evaluation.
     (4) Organizations that may receive funding from the account include local health boards; nonprofit, neighborhood-based, community, regional, or statewide organizations; and federally recognized Indian tribes located in the state.
     (5) Beginning with the 2011-2013 biennium, the department shall contract with the nongovernmental private-public partnership designated in RCW 43.215.070 to administer programs funded through the home visiting services account.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The sum of . . . . . . dollars is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, from the general fund to the home visiting services account for the purpose of providing state matching funds for evidence-based, research-based, and promising home visiting programs consistent with the goals expressed in RCW 43.121.170 and the programs described in RCW 43.121.180.
     (2) The sum of . . . . . . dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the home visiting services account to the department of early learning for the fiscal biennium ending June 30, 2011, solely for administration of services funded by the home visiting services account authorized in section 1 of this act.