FINAL BILL REPORT

HB 2435

C 220 L 18

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Reducing training requirements for certain respite care providers who provide respite to unpaid caregivers and work three hundred hours or less in any calendar year.

Sponsors: Representatives Kilduff, Schmick, Cody, Muri, Kagi, Tharinger, Pollet and Tarleton.

House Committee on Health Care & Wellness

Senate Committee on Health & Long Term Care

Background:

Long-term care workers provide paid, personal care assistance to individuals with developmental disabilities or other long-term care needs. The term includes individual providers of home care services. It excludes people who are not paid by the state or any private agency or facility licensed by the state to provide personal care services.

The minimum training requirement for long-term care workers is 75 hours of entry-level training approved by the Department of Social and Health Services (Department). Several categories of individual providers are subject to different training requirements. For example:

• A biological, step, or adoptive parent who is the individual provider only for his or her developmentally disabled son or daughter must receive 12 hours of training relevant to the needs of adults with developmental disabilities within 120 days of becoming an individual provider.

• A person working as an individual provider who works less than 300 hours annually providing respite care services only to individuals with developmental disabilities who are receiving services must complete at least 14 hours of specified training within 120 days of becoming an individual provider.

• The following types of individual providers must complete 35 hours of training within 120 days of becoming an individual provider: (1) an individual provider caring for his or her biological, step, or adoptive child or parent (unless he or she is subject to the 12-hour requirement); (2) a person working as an individual provider who provides 20 hours or less of care for one person in a month; and (3) a person working as an individual provider who only provides respite services and works less than 300 hours in a year, unless the respite services are provided to an individual with developmental disabilities who is receiving services.

Only training curricula approved by the Department may be used to fulfill these requirements. The Department may only approve curricula that have been developed with input from consumer and worker representatives and that require comprehensive instruction by qualified instructors.

For individual providers represented by an exclusive bargaining representative, all required training must be provided by a training partnership designated by the exclusive bargaining representative. The training partnership must provide reports to verify that individual providers have complied with all training requirements.

Summary:

Rather than completing 35 hours of training, a person working as an individual provider must complete 14 hours of training within 120 days of becoming an individual provider if he or she:

• provides respite care services only to individuals receiving long-term care services; and

• works 300 hours or less in a year.

To become eligible to provide care, the individual provider must complete 5 training hours, including 3 hours of safety training and 2 hours of orientation training regarding the caregiving role and terms of employment. The training partnership must offer at least 12 of the 14 training hours online, and 5 of the online training hours must be individually selected from elective courses.

Votes on Final Passage: