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SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 419
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AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE
C 441 L 87
State of Washington 50th Legislature 1987 Regular Session
By House Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Representatives Hargrove, Wineberry, Padden, Brekke, Holm, Patrick, Winsley, Brough, Silver and Moyer; by request of Department of Social and Health Services)
Read first time 2/13/87 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.
AN ACT Relating to administrative establishment of paternity; amending RCW 74.20A.280; creating new sections; and making an appropriation.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The state of Washington through the department of social and health services is required by state and federal statutes to provide paternity establishment services. These statutes require that reasonable efforts to establish paternity be made, if paternity of the child is in question, in all public assistance cases and whenever such services are requested in nonassistance cases.
The increasing number of children being born out of wedlock together with improved awareness of the benefits to the child and society of having paternity established have resulted in a greater demand on the existing judicial paternity establishment system.
Sec. 2. Section 23, chapter 171, Laws of 1979 ex. sess. and RCW 74.20A.280 are each amended to read as follows:
While
discharging its responsibilities to enforce the support obligations of
responsible parents, the department shall respect the right of privacy of
recipients of public assistance and of other persons. Any inquiry about sexual
activity shall be limited to that necessary to ((resolve a genuine dispute
about the parentage of a child. When a custodial mother has informed the
department that a particular man is the father of her child, the department
shall make no further inquiry into her personal life unless the man so
identified has denied that he is the father of such child)) identify and
locate possible fathers and to gather facts needed in the adjudication of
parentage.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The department of social and health services shall augment its present paternity establishment services through the hiring of additional assistant attorneys general, or contracting with prosecutors or private attorneys licensed in the state of Washington in those judicial districts experiencing delay or an accumulation of unserved paternity cases. The employment of private attorneys shall be limited in scope to renewable six-month periods in judicial districts where the prosecutor or the attorney general cannot provide adequate, cost-effective service. The department of social and health services shall provide a written report of the circumstances requiring employment of private attorneys to the judiciary committees of the senate and house of representatives and provide copies of such reports to the office of the attorney general and to the Washington association of prosecuting attorneys.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The sum of four hundred sixty-seven thousand seven hundred eighty-seven dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the office of support enforcement for the biennium ending June 30, 1989, to carry out the required paternity establishment services.
Pursuant to RCW 26.26.060(2), the office of support enforcement within the department of social and health services shall utilize this appropriation for ensuring that full paternity services are provided as mandated by federal and state law.