S-4666               _______________________________________________

                                         SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL NO. 6226

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Senators Bailey, Rinehart, Metcalf, Bender, Madsen, Murray, Talmadge, Lee, Craswell, Saling, Warnke, Patrick, Fleming, Johnson, Sutherland, Wojahn, Hansen, Conner and Kreidler;by request of Superintendent of Public Instruction)

Read first time 1/30/90.

AN ACT Relating to education; adding new sections to Title 28A RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     (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 receive and 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.

          (2) The legislature recognizes a need to develop a cadre of child abuse prevention education specialists to provide state-wide training and leadership to local school districts in child abuse and neglect prevention and to provide grants to school districts to facilitate the purposes of RCW 28A.03.514.

          (3) It is the intent of the legislature to make child abuse and neglect primary prevention education and training available to all school personnel, to all school-aged children, and to parents.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     The superintendent of public instruction shall identify and train  child abuse prevention education specialists to provide child abuse and neglect training and services to school districts consistent with the purposes of RCW 28A.03.514.   The superintendent of public instruction shall coordinate and monitor the specialists' work with local districts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.     (1) The superintendent of public instruction may grant funds to school districts for the purposes of RCW 28A.58.255(2).    The grants shall be in such amounts as determined by the superintendent of public instruction, taking into account the size of the district, but with no grant being smaller than five hundred dollars.  The sum of all grants awarded shall not exceed the amount appropriated by the legislature for such purposes.

          (2)  Grants shall be awarded based on the identified needs of each applicant district.  Districts shall provide to all certificated instructional staff, as a priority activity, staff development training in positive discipline skills and awareness of what constitutes child abuse and neglect, including but not limited to child abuse,  as defined under RCW 26.44.020(12).  Additional activities and services that may be supported through grant funds may include, but are not limited to, the following training programs and the instructional materials needed to support them:

          (a) 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;

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

          (c) Working with families;

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

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

          (f) Parenting and preparenting skills; and

          (g) Increasing coordination between teachers and specialists who provide classroom support services.

          (3) Two or more districts may submit a joint application.  An educational service district may submit an application on behalf of one or more districts.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.     Sections 2 and 3 of this act are each added to Title 28A RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     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 purposes of sections 2 and 3 of this act.