H-1178              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1582

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Cole, Peery, Ebersole, Prentice, Todd, Jones, Scott, Leonard, Valle, Rasmussen, P. King, Pruitt, Jacobsen, Appelwick, Anderson, Winsley, R. Fisher, Wang, Wineberry, R. King, Belcher, Rust, H. Myers, Crane, Phillips and Brekke

Read first time 1/30/89 and referred to Committees on Education/Appropriations (2/22/89).

AN ACT Relating to child care; adding new sections to chapter 28A.34 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     It is the intent of the legislature to assist families to achieve financial independence.  One element in achieving this goal for families living below the poverty level is to provide safe before and after-school child care for their elementary school age children.   Therefore, the legislature creates the safe care school child care pilot program.  The program shall provide before and after-school child care to school age children of families whose annual income is at or below the poverty level.  The program shall be provided on school property by the school district or a private contractor.  School districts that have schools where twenty-five percent or more of their students live at or below the poverty level shall be eligible for participation in the pilot program.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     (1) The superintendent of public instruction may grant funds to school districts that apply for funding of a before and after-school child care program for elementary school students living at or below the poverty level.

          (2) To be eligible, a district must demonstrate that twenty-five percent of the students in the school district live at or below the poverty level and that the program for these children will be provided at no charge to their families.

          (3) Eligible districts shall submit an application that includes:

          (a) A description of the program to be provided;

          (b) The number of locations to be served;

          (c) The anticipated number of participants;

          (d) Whether children from families above the poverty level will be allowed to participate and, if so, what type of sliding fee schedule will be used;

          (e) Whether transportation will be provided from the school to and from the child care facility location, if the child care site is not located in the child's resident school;

          (f) Whether a breakfast program will be incorporated in the child care program; and

          (g) Whether the program will operate during school holidays.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The superintendent of public instruction shall adopt rules to implement the purpose of sections 1 through 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     The superintendent of public instruction shall conduct a study that describes:  The types of programs being offered by the selected school districts; the level of participation by month by poverty level  and nonpoverty level students; and analysis of the costs of transportation to and from the resident school building; student staff ratio; participation on school holidays; an analysis of the ages of participating children.  The report shall also include recommendations on whether or not the program should continue.  The report shall be presented to the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate no later than January 15, 1991.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     Sections 1 through 3 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.34 RCW.