AN ACT Relating to employer-sponsored child care; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that:

(1) The inability to obtain convenient, quality, and cost-effective child care is a major impediment for parents seeking to find and sustain employment.

(2) The cost of day care prevents many single parents, especially women, from career advancement and from escaping the cycle of poverty.

(3) Recent data indicates that close to one-half of all mothers with children under six years of age are working and that approximately one-fifth of the nation's children reside in single-parent households.

(4) Certain employers have provided model child care programs which should be encouraged and that there is a need for increased information and sponsorship by employers of flexible child care programs.

(5) Effective child care can aid employee productivity, lower absenteeism and job turnover, and promotes good public relations.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The definitions in this section apply throughout this act.

(1) "Community-based organization" means nonprofit corporations whose primary purpose is to provide child care assistance to parents on a local, regional, or state-wide basis.

(2) "Department" means the department of social and health services.

(3) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services.

(4) "Employer-sponsored child care" means policies and programs initiated by employers to enable current or future employees to use increased child care assistance. This includes but is not limited to direct services such as on-site child care, consortium centers, child care networks, and sick child care programs; financial assistance, including vendor and voucher programs and charitable contributions; and changes in personnel policies such as flex-time, job sharing, flexible benefits, maternity and paternity leave, part-time employment, and sick leave.

(5) "Matching funds" includes anything of value which is contributed by business and industry to the clearinghouse which is reasonably calculated to support directly the development and expansion of a particular program under section 5 of this act and represents an addition to any financial support previously or customarily provided by the donor. "Matching funds" includes, but is not limited to, funds, federal funds, equipment, and facilities.

(6) "Small business" means a business located in the state that employs fewer than two hundred fifty employees.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. There is established a pilot program and clearinghouse on employer-sponsored child care referred to in this act as the clearinghouse. The department shall provide assistance to the clearinghouse and shall contract with community-based organizations on a regional or state-wide basis to provide services under this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The clearinghouse shall be responsible for providing useful information to different types of private employers on methods to provide employer-sponsored child care programs. The goal of the clearinghouse is to increase the number of child care programs offered by employers, especially for low-income parents. The clearinghouse shall:

(1) Provide information to employers about the range of options available to providing child care programs;

(2) Offer technical assistance to employers in developing feasibility studies for specific corporate needs and resources;

(3) Market the benefits and motivational reasons for employers to take advantage of child care programs;

(4) Provide seed money for demonstration projects in small businesses; and

(5) Provide nonmonetary awards to businesses that develop exemplary child care programs.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) The clearinghouse shall develop a competitive process to select demonstration projects for employer-sponsored child care projects. The clearinghouse shall solicit federal funds and matching grants to assist the development of demonstration projects.

(2) Demonstration projects shall be selected for consideration on a geographic basis.

(3) Participation by small businesses shall be encouraged.

(4) Priority consideration shall be given to those projects that assist low-income parents.

(5) Use of other federal and state funds shall be encouraged.

(6) No demonstration project shall use more than fifty thousand dollars of state funds allocated under this act.

(7) Each demonstration project shall be matched by private-sector matching funds.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. There is appropriated from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to carry out the purposes of this act.

Of this amount, one hundred fifty thousand dollars is provided for the clearinghouse on employer-sponsored child care and three hundred fifty thousand dollars is provided for demonstration projects.