Z-1462               _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 2358

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Representatives H. Myers, Brumsickle, G. Fisher, Holland, Rector, Jones, Jacobsen, Wineberry, Kremen, Winsley, Schoon, Tate, Wang, Cooper, Miller, Van Luven and Phillips; by request of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Read first time 1/10/90 and referred to Committees on Education/Appropriations.

AN ACT Relating to education; adding new sections to Title 28A RCW; 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 school personnel are in a unique position to identify abused and neglected children, to teach children personal safety skills, to provide skill training that can be important in reducing the cycle of abuse and neglect, and to provide a safe and nurturing school environment for children.  It is the intent of the legislature to make child abuse and neglect prevention education available to all school personnel and to all school aged children in the state of Washington and to prohibit corporal punishment as a means of discipline in the schools.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     (1) The legislature recognizes the importance of coordination and cooperation between local school districts and their local child protective services offices in providing the greatest assistance to abused and neglected children.

          (2) The superintendent of public instruction shall appoint a task force to develop an integrated service delivery program for child abuse prevention in the schools.

          (3) The task force shall include at least one representative from each of the following:

          (a) Teachers;

          (b) Principals;

          (c) Superintendents;

          (d) Parents;

          (e) Local or county-city health departments;

          (f) School nurses;

          (g) School counselors;

          (h) Child protective services of the department of social and health services; and

          (i) The Washington association of child abuse council.

          The task force report on its integrated service program shall be delivered to the legislature by December 15, 1990.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     The legislature recognizes that there is a need to develop a cadre of child abuse prevention education specialists to provide state-wide training and leadership to local school districts.  The superintendent of public instruction shall identify and train these specialists and coordinate and monitor their work with local districts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     The superintendent of public instruction may grant funds to school districts for the purposes of training child abuse prevention education specialists.  The grants shall be in such amounts as determined by the superintendent of public instruction taking into account the size of the district, with no grants being smaller than five hundred dollars.  The sum of all grants awarded shall not exceed the amount appropriated by the legislature for such purposes.

          The legislature recognizes that there is a continuum of educational program needs among districts.  Grants shall be awarded based on the identified needs of each applicant district.  Activities and services that may be supported through this grant process may include, but are not limited to, the following training programs and the instructional materials needed to support them:

          (1) Identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect for administrators and all school personnel, including teachers, teaching assistants, bus drivers, custodians, volunteers, and others who interact with children in the school work setting;

          (2) Teaching personal safety to students at all grade levels;

          (3) Working with families;

          (4) Counseling skills for working with abused and neglected children;

          (5) Working with abused and neglected children in the classroom; and

          (6) Parenting and preparenting skills.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     Sections 3 and 4 of this act are each added to Title 28A RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.     The sum of one million dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the biennium ending June 30, 1991, from the general fund to the superintendent of public instruction for the task force authorized in section 2 of this act and for the training of child abuse prevention specialists.