HOUSE BILL REPORT

E2SSB 5553

BYSenate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Talmadge, Wojahn, Kiskaddon, Stratton, Kreidler, Craswell, McCaslin, Nelson, Moore and von Reichbauer)

Establishing the children and family services pilot project.

House Committe on Human Services

Majority Report:  Do pass with amendments.  (8)

      Signed by Representatives Brekke, Chair; Scott, Vice Chair; Leonard, Moyer, H. Sommers, Sutherland, Wang and Winsley.

Minority Report:  Do not pass.  (1)

      Signed by Representative Padden.

House Staff:Jean Wessman (786-7132)

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES APRIL 1, 1987

BACKGROUND:

It has been suggested that a comprehensive system of children and family services needs to be established state-wide.  Such a system would guarantee that a full continuum of services for families would be available in both urban and rural areas.

SUMMARY:

BILL AS AMENDED:  A pilot project is created to guide the state in establishing a comprehensive system of children and family services state-wide by 1990.  The pilot project shall be conducted in the service areas of the Kent, Spokane, and Chehalis Children's Services Offices.

Services provided to clients include early intervention, service needs assessment, and permanency planning. Broad based community participation is required.  The goal is to serve clients at the least intrusive and most cost-effective level of service appropriate to needs.  Guidelines for assessment will be written and consistently applied throughout the project to assure that service levels may only be skipped under these specific guidelines.  The department shall use a risk assessment tool at the three pilot sites with enhanced community services, within appropriated funds, and report back to Senate and House Ways and Means on the use of the tool.

The Department of Social and Health Services shall implement a management information system for monitoring project data at the earliest possible date.  The Department of Social and Health Services shall collect baseline data regarding the actual functioning of the current system and shall set goals and objectives regarding the pilot project as a whole and its individual components.  It shall monitor individual service providers and the entire system regarding its progress in meeting these goals and objectives.  The department shall report to the Joint Select Committee on Children and Family Services regarding the management information system prior to implementation.  The Senate and House Ways and Means Committees will also receive the Department of Social and Health Services report on the cost of the management information system prior to implementation.

The pilot project shall commence on January 1, 1988, and terminates December 31, 1989.  The department shall provide a detailed implementation plan to the legislature by October 15, 1987, for review and approval by the Joint Select Committee on Children and Families.  The implementation plan shall include:  alternative management models, with plans for administration by the local administrator for the courts, the Department of Social and Health Services, a community-based organization, or any combination of these entities; a proposal for a risk assessment mechanism establishing a decision making process when services needed by children and families extend beyond those available from the Department of Children and Family Services.  The Department of Social and Health Services is authorized to combine the funding categories in order to provide for efficient case management to meet actual client needs.

The Legislative Budget Committee, in consultation with the Joint Select Committee, is to contract with an independent evaluator to analyze the data collected throughout the term of the projects.  The pilot project evaluation will include a comparison to children and family services performance in areas of the state not served by the pilot.

A Joint Select Committee on Children and Family Services is created consisting of eight legislators and four citizen members to serve the pilot projects.  If the Governor's Commission on Children is enacted into law, the powers and duties of the Joint Select Committee will be assumed by the Governor's Commission.

The act takes effect immediately.  If specific funding is not provided for this act by July 1, 1988, the act is null and void.

AMENDED BILL COMPARED TO ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE:  The language on use of a risk assessment tool is expanded.  The Joint Select Committee on Children and Family Services will not be established if the Governor's Commission on Children is created.

Fiscal Note:      Attached.

Effective Date:The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Jerry Wasson, Department of Social and Health Services; Ruth Kagi, League of Women Voters; Margie Krantz, Citizen; and Marilyn Guenther, Coalition of Concerned Citizens (supports Pilot Project).

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    No complete continuum of care exists in any local office service area in the state.  A pilot project providing just such a comprehensive array of services is necessary to evaluate the choices of services provided, the method of delivering services, alternative management models and use of a risk assessment tool prior to implementing any new statewide system of children's services.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.