BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to comprehensive prevention services for at-risk children and their families; and adding new sections to chapter 43.63A RCW.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This act may be known and cited as the children's investment act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The legislature finds that:

(1) The failure of a significant number of our children to develop to their full potential threatens Washington state's future productivity and competitiveness;

(2) The failure of children to thrive and develop leads to avoidable long-term costs to society in terms of illness, welfare, teenage pregnancies, school dropouts, drug and alcohol addiction, child abuse and crime;

(3) Investments in comprehensive preventive services for children and their families are highly effective in alleviating such social costs if children are reached early;

(4) While much is spent on children through a variety of programs, the focus has most often been on crisis response. While support for children in crisis is essential, a more long-range view dictates a focus on preventive services. Only through early intervention and prevention can we stem the flow of children needing crisis help and treatment. Our overloaded crisis systems will remain overloaded unless we move toward prevention strategies;

(5) Much is spent on treatment approaches identifying a specific problem and mandating a specific service in response. While identifying single problems and specific interventions are important, research suggests that the most effective early interventions for children are those which are more comprehensive in approach, with the flexibility to respond to a host of potential barriers or dysfunctions in the family setting; and

(6) Together, the lack of comprehensiveness in approach and the crisis nature of current assistance create a system widely viewed as fragmented, short-sighted, and ineffective. With a few exceptions, we have a system designed not to help children thrive and develop, but to help them survive after being hurt.

The legislature is aware that model programs such as the federal head start program and our own early childhood education and assistance program incorporate many of the positive concepts suggested herein; the legislature is anxious to incorporate the positive aspects of these more comprehensive models into currently existing single-service programs at the community level, making them more comprehensive, more culturally sensitive, and more prevention-oriented in nature.

Finally, the legislature is aware that many vital community-based nonprofit agencies providing assistance to children and families are under severe financial stress. The human services infrastructure at the community level is at risk.

Therefore, through this act, it is the intent of the legislature to develop a mechanism that will: Provide start-up funding for pilot or model programs, based on local need; complement existing community programs; help to develop comprehensive, culturally sensitive, prevention-oriented programs for at-risk children and their families; foster self-sufficiency among families; encourage and support local prevention initiatives that develop creative community partnerships; and protect and enhance the community-based nonprofit infrastructure so vital to human service delivery for at-risk children.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout sections 4 and 5 of this act.

(1) "Comprehensive service" means a service that responds to the needs of families or children, or both, as they are identified, regardless of the specific service being provided when new issues arise.

(2) "Magnet programs" means important existing programs which currently attract families to human service providers, such as housing programs, energy assistance, or child abuse and neglect programs. Magnet services can be leveraged into a starting point to identify and respond to other needs of the child and family, often by using existing resources through new or existing partnerships.

(3) "Model program services" means services targeted to young children, zero to eight years of age, and that: Are responsive to the family unit as a whole; are comprehensive and culturally sensitive in nature; generally occur before the young child is in crisis due to abuse or neglect; incorporate mutually developed family goals; and include coordinated efforts from other community resources. "Model program services" may incorporate new and innovative community partnerships into the service design, as between a school district and a private nonprofit agency, or between a private nonprofit agency and the sheriff's department, for example.

(4) "Prevention services" means program interventions that target families with young children, generally zero to eight years of age, before those children are in need of crisis intervention, and which address dysfunctions related to both child and family. While targeting families with young children as a starting point, services to older children and other family members would be expected as part of a comprehensive approach.

(5) "Single service" means those programs such as energy assistance or landlord-tenant counseling, as examples, that allow funds to be used only for that specific service, even if, while providing that service, the service provider identifies other problems in the family that need attention.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The purposes of chapter . . ., Laws of 1993 (this act) are to:

(1) Respond to a widely felt need to more aggressively fund prevention services to and for young at-risk children and their families, specifically tailored to the unique problems existing at the local community level;

(2) Provide a source of potential funding to leverage and improve upon the integration and coordination of existing community services, and to develop new and innovative partnerships that focus on prevention, leading toward self-sufficiency; and

(3) Assist existing programs to take a more comprehensive, culturally sensitive service approach by providing a source of funding that encourages a customized local response to the wide array of problems that may be impacting at-risk children and their families.

Overall, the legislature desires to actively support programs for young at-risk children that: Focus on local responses which are culturally sensitive; provide comprehensive help rather than a single service; result in the development of a positive working relationship between the provider and the family based on mutual responsibility; empower the family to become more self-sufficient; reach young children and their families before they are in major crisis; and rely on existing community-based services as vital magnet programs that already attract children and families in need.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. (1) The department of community development shall seek grant proposals that incorporate model program services and carry out the purposes enumerated in section 4 of this act. To facilitate continuity of program, proposals should be for three years of continuous service. To facilitate widespread distribution of the funds and services, no grant shall exceed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars for the three-year period or two hundred fifty thousand dollars annually. In addition, no competitively grant-funded agency may submit a second competitive proposal until the initial program is within one year of expiration. Funded programs may not be automatically renewed, but may compete for ongoing funding on a three-year cycle.

(2) Entities eligible for competitive grant funds include any nonprofit institution showing the ability to extend existing services into more effective prevention-oriented programs for at-risk children and their families to carry out the purposes enumerated in section 4 of this act.

(3) The department of community development shall, to carry out the purposes enumerated in section 4 of this act, adopt rules governing the development of a competitive request for proposal process; fiscal accounting; annual site visits to funded programs; the review and analysis of annual program reports provided by funded agencies; and the development of reports provided to the legislature in partnership with local program providers.

(4) The department of community development shall designate a reasonable amount of each contractor's funding under chapter . . ., Laws of 1993 (this act) for third party independent evaluation. Evaluation design shall be incorporated into each project's application and shall include both process and outcome components of each individual contractor's program.

(5) The Washington council for the prevention of child abuse and neglect shall use its existing competitive grant process, using funds from section 5 of this act to extend the grant period for outstanding community proposals.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. All sums appropriated from the general fund, as well as all grants, gifts, or bequests shall be apportioned as follows:

(1) Forty-five percent to the department of community development for grants under the existing community services block grant program, specifically to target at-risk children in poverty;

(2) Forty percent to the department of community development for competitive grants to nonprofits;

(3) Ten percent to the Washington council for the prevention of child abuse and neglect for competitive grants to nonprofits through its existing grant process specifically to extend grant periods beyond one year in length;

(4) Five percent to the department of community development for administration of the new competitive fund.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Sections 1 through 6 of this act are each added to chapter 43.63A RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.