AN ACT Relating to community work experience programs for aid to families with dependent children recipients; adding a new chapter to Title 74 RCW; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes the necessity for providing a community work experience program to able-bodied persons receiving aid to families with dependent children. The legislature recognizes the need for programs in addition to those under chapter 74.23 RCW. It is the intent of the legislature that all able-bodied persons receiving aid to families with dependent children gain experience in both public and private nonprofit organizations. This will both aid local communities and help the individuals to develop the skills, attitudes, and experience necessary to gain full unsubsidized employment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The community work experience program is intended to ensure that people work for their assistance at meaningful jobs designed to help them gain work skills so that they will find it easier to gain full unsubsidized private sector employment.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The department of social and health services shall provide the legislature with an annual evaluation. The evaluation report shall contain but not be limited to information on the number, location, and type of community work experience program sites and the number of individuals participating in the program, the number and type of full unsubsidized employment found after community work experience program participation and other information which will assist the legislature in evaluating the program. The community work experience program shall terminate on July 1, 1991, unless continued by the legislature.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. For the purposes of this chapter, an able-bodied person is anyone not exempted under the following criteria:

(1) Under age sixteen or attending, full time, an elementary, secondary, vocational, or technical school;

(2) A person who is ill, incapacitated, or sixty-five years of age or older;

(3) A person whose presence in the home is required because of illness or incapacity of another member of the household;

(4) A needy caretaker relative of a child under the age of three; or

(5) A pregnant woman in the last trimester of pregnancy.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The department of social and health services shall administer the community work experience program. There shall be established interagency agreements with the employment security department to establish community work experience sites. The work site development and the placement of individuals on those sites shall be done by the employment security department which shall report to the department of social and health services on the number and location of the community work experience program sites, and the number and names of clients they have placed in each site. Community work experience programs shall be established state-wide. To the extent possible the community work experience program work sites shall be of such variety that a client's work assignment will match the client's skills, or will allow the client an opportunity to increase his or her skills, or develop new skills to enhance employment opportunities. The projects shall enable participants to gain employment skills in both public and private nonprofit organizations, including organizations providing home care and services to disabled persons. When feasible, an able-bodied person with school-age children shall be assigned to a work experience and training project during the hours the children are in school.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. Liability insurance shall be provided to all community work experience program clients by the community work experience program sponsor or by the state.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. All recipients of aid to families with dependent children shall participate in mandatory job search prior to their community work experience program assignment, and part-time job search during their community work experience program assignment, unless the community work experience program sponsor has agreed in writing to hire the participant in unsubsidized employment.

Prior to participating in the community work experience program the following criteria must be met:

(1) An individual must be a recipient of aid to families with dependent children for a minimum of six consecutive months;

(2) An individual must have completed four weeks of approved job search within the preceding nine months; and

(3) Childcare and transportation services must be secured.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. (1) The department of social and health services shall keep a register of public and private nonprofit agencies participating in the community work experience program.

(2) The department of social and health services may contract with private nonprofit agencies to carry out specific functions to be determined by the department under this chapter, except that aid to families with dependent children eligibility cannot be contracted out. All participating agencies are subject to federal and state confidentiality laws.

(3) The department of social and health services may establish special work experience and training programs for the provision of home care and services to disabled persons. Persons participating in these programs shall be specifically screened to assure they meet qualifying criteria as determined by the department for these positions.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. (1) If a community work experience program participant fails to participate in a work experience and training project without good cause, the entire family becomes ineligible for aid to families with dependent children. The department shall seek necessary waivers from the federal department of health and human services to enable implementation of this section.

(2) No person may be required to perform more than the maximum number of community work experience program hours permitted under federal law. At least two days each week shall be left available to recipients for job search activities.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. The community work experience program must:

(1) Serve a useful public purpose;

(2) Not result in the displacement of persons currently employed or the filling of established, unfilled position vacancies. This means that community work experience program participants may not perform tasks which would have been undertaken by employees or which have the effect of reducing the work of employees;

(3) Not relate to political, electoral, or partisan activities;

(4) Comply with applicable federal, state, or local health and safety standards, and provide reasonable work conditions; and

(5) Not have been developed in response to, or in any way associated with, the existence of a strike, lockout, or other bona fide labor dispute, or violate any existing labor agreement between employees and employers.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 11. Sections 1 through 10 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 74 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 12. 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. 13. 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 .......... dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to carry out the purposes of this act.