6230.E AMH CFS H5316.1 [atlas:amendment]

6230.E AMH CFS H5316.1

ESB 6230 - H COMM AMD

By Committee on Children & Family Services

Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:

"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that consumers of child care services have a legitimate interest in receiving timely information about complaints against child care service providers in order to make meaningful choices regarding the facilities and people who provide care for their children. The legislature further finds that as a result of improvements in information management systems, the state's ability to provide relevant information to child care service consumers has also improved.

The legislature intends to utilize the state's improved ability to collect and manage information about complaints against child care service providers by requiring the department of social and health services to report all relevant licensing actions and complaints alleging serious issues affecting the health and safety of children to appropriate individuals and organizations in a timely manner. The legislature further intends to authorize the department to report such information to the general public when necessary and appropriate for the health and safety of children.

The legislature further finds that, although new information management systems will make more information available to those using child day-care centers or family day-care homes, this information should not supplant their own inquiry into a child day-care center or family day-care home. To determine if a facility or home is the right place for their child, parents should spend time at the facility or home, they should ask questions about the policies, schedules, and procedures of the facility or home, and they should make inquiries in the community about the facility or home's reputation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall report any adverse licensing actions against a child day-care center or family day-care provider taken under this chapter as a result of serious issues affecting the health and safety of children as follows: (a) Within two business days of taking the action, by posting for at least two weeks a prominent notice of the licensing action at the facility; and (b) within two business days of taking the action, by notifying the referent and appropriate public or private child care resource and referral agencies. The report shall include a description of the grounds for the adverse licensing action.

(2) The department shall report any complaints against a child day-care center or family day-care provider alleging serious issues affecting the health and safety of children that are determined to be founded or valid as follows: (a) Within two business days of making the determination, by posting for at least two weeks a prominent notice of the determination at the facility; and (b) within two business days of making the determination, by notifying the referent and appropriate public or private child care resource and referral agencies. The report shall include a description of the founded or valid allegations and a summary of the resolution of the complaint or the follow-up actions taken by the department and the center or provider in response to the complaint.

(3) If a complaint under this section has been determined to be invalid, inconclusive, or unfounded, or an adverse licensing action under this section has been found to be erroneous or without basis the department shall eliminate any account of the complaint or adverse licensing action from the department's records.

(4) If the child day-care center or family day-care provider is later found to have not committed the acts or conduct justifying the adverse licensing action or alleged in a complaint reported under subsection (1), (2), or (3) of this section, the department shall forthwith prepare a notice of public exoneration. The department shall report the public exoneration to the same people and entities, and in the same manner, who received a report under subsections (2) and (3) of this section. Such notice shall also be maintained as part of the department's record of the licensing action or complaint.

(5) Every public or private child care resource or referral agency shall disclose, upon request, all information received from the department concerning adverse licensing actions or complaints against a child day-care center or family day-care provider.

(6) The department shall disclose, upon request, the receipt, general nature, and resolution or current status of all complaints on record with the department after the effective date of this act against a child day-care center or family day-care provider alleging serious issues affecting the health and safety of children.

(7) This section shall not be construed to require the reporting of any information that is exempt from public disclosure under chapter 42.17 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

At any time during a pending adverse licensing action, a pending investigation of a complaint alleging serious issues affecting the health and safety of children, or an ongoing corrective action plan, the department may, as necessary and appropriate to protect the health or safety of children, (1) place a child day-care center or family day-care provider on nonreferral status, and (2) notify appropriate public and private child care resource and referral agencies of the department's investigation and decision to place the center or provider on nonreferral status. If the department determines, at the conclusion of the investigation of a proceeding under this section, that no adverse licensure action is appropriate, a complaint is not founded or valid, or a corrective action plan has been successfully concluded, the department shall remove the provider from nonreferral status and provide appropriate notice to the public and private child care resource and referral agencies.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The department shall compile an annual report summarizing all investigations for the previous fiscal year relating to serious issues affecting the health or safety of children in the care of child day-care centers and family day-care providers. The report shall be provided to the legislature, the child care coordinating committee, and child care resource and referral agencies by August 1st of each year beginning in 1997.

(2) The report shall include, at a minimum, (a) an analysis of the volume and general nature of all reports and disclosures made by the department as required or authorized under section 2 of this act; (b) an analysis of the volume and general nature of the pending adverse licensing actions, pending complaint investigations, and ongoing corrective action plans for which the department placed centers and providers on nonreferral status under section 3 of this act; (c) an analysis of the volume and general nature of complaints determined to be invalid, inconclusive, or unfounded; and (d) information about the average length of time required by the department to complete investigations determined to be valid or founded, inconclusive, and invalid or unfounded.

Sec. 5. RCW 74.15.020 and 1995 c 311 s 18 and 1995 c 302 s 3 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

For the purpose of chapter 74.15 RCW and RCW 74.13.031, and unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context thereof, the following terms shall mean:

(1) ((~~"Department" means the state department of social and health services;~~

~~(2) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services;~~

~~(3)~~)) "Adverse licensing action" means action by the department denying, suspending, revoking, or not renewing a license authorized under this chapter.

(2) "Agency" means any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or facility which receives children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities for control, care, or maintenance outside their own homes, or which places, arranges the placement of, or assists in the placement of children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities for foster care or placement of children for adoption, and shall include the following irrespective of whether there is compensation to the agency or to the children, expectant mothers or persons with developmental disabilities for services rendered:

(a) "Group-care facility" means an agency, other than a foster-family home, which is maintained and operated for the care of a group of children on a twenty-four hour basis;

(b) "Child-placing agency" means an agency which places a child or children for temporary care, continued care, or for adoption;

(c) "Maternity service" means an agency which provides or arranges for care or services to expectant mothers, before or during confinement, or which provides care as needed to mothers and their infants after confinement;

(d) "Child day-care center" means an agency which regularly provides care for a group of children for periods of less than twenty-four hours;

(e) "Family day-care provider" means a child day-care provider who regularly provides child day care for not more than twelve children in the provider's home in the family living quarters;

(f) "Foster-family home" means an agency which regularly provides care on a twenty-four hour basis to one or more children, expectant mothers, or persons with developmental disabilities in the family abode of the person or persons under whose direct care and supervision the child, expectant mother, or person with a developmental disability is placed;

(g) "Crisis residential center" means an agency which is a temporary protective residential facility operated to perform the duties specified in chapter 13.32A RCW, in the manner provided in RCW 74.13.032 through 74.13.036.

((~~(4)~~)) (3) "Agency" shall not include the following:

(a) Persons related to the child, expectant mother, or person with developmental disabilities in the following ways:

(i) Any blood relative, including those of half blood, and including first cousins, nephews or nieces, and persons of preceding generations as denoted by prefixes of grand, great, or great-great;

(ii) Stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, and stepsister;

(iii) A person who legally adopts a child or the child's parent as well as the natural and other legally adopted children of such persons, and other relatives of the adoptive parents in accordance with state law;

(iv) Spouses of any persons named in (a)(i), (ii), or (iii) of this subsection, even after the marriage is terminated; or

(v) Extended family members, as defined by the law or custom of the Indian child's tribe or, in the absence of such law or custom, a person who has reached the age of eighteen and who is the Indian child's grandparent, aunt or uncle, brother or sister, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, niece or nephew, first or second cousin, or stepparent who provides care in the family abode on a twenty-four-hour basis to an Indian child as defined in 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1903(4);

(b) Persons who are legal guardians of the child, expectant mother, or persons with developmental disabilities;

(c) Persons who care for a neighbor's or friend's child or children, with or without compensation, where: (i) The person providing care for periods of less than twenty-four hours does not conduct such activity on an ongoing, regularly scheduled basis for the purpose of engaging in business, which includes, but is not limited to, advertising such care; or (ii) the parent and person providing care on a twenty-four-hour basis have agreed to the placement in writing and the state is not providing any payment for the care;

(d) Parents on a mutually cooperative basis exchange care of one another's children;

(e) A person, partnership, corporation, or other entity that provides placement or similar services to exchange students or international student exchange visitors or persons who have the care of an exchange student in their home;

(f) Nursery schools or kindergartens which are engaged primarily in educational work with preschool children and in which no child is enrolled on a regular basis for more than four hours per day;

(g) Schools, including boarding schools, which are engaged primarily in education, operate on a definite school year schedule, follow a stated academic curriculum, accept only school-age children and do not accept custody of children;

(h) Seasonal camps of three months' or less duration engaged primarily in recreational or educational activities;

(i) Hospitals licensed pursuant to chapter 70.41 RCW when performing functions defined in chapter 70.41 RCW, nursing homes licensed under chapter 18.51 RCW and boarding homes licensed under chapter 18.20 RCW;

(j) Licensed physicians or lawyers;

(k) Facilities providing care to children for periods of less than twenty-four hours whose parents remain on the premises to participate in activities other than employment;

(l) Facilities approved and certified under chapter 71A.22 RCW;

(m) Any agency having been in operation in this state ten years prior to June 8, 1967, and not seeking or accepting moneys or assistance from any state or federal agency, and is supported in part by an endowment or trust fund;

(n) Persons who have a child in their home for purposes of adoption, if the child was placed in such home by a licensed child-placing agency, an authorized public or tribal agency or court or if a replacement report has been filed under chapter 26.33 RCW and the placement has been approved by the court;

(o) An agency operated by any unit of local, state, or federal government or an agency, located within the boundaries of a federally recognized Indian reservation, licensed by the Indian tribe;

(p) An agency located on a federal military reservation, except where the military authorities request that such agency be subject to the licensing requirements of this chapter.

(4) "Department" means the state department of social and health services.

(5) "Probationary license" means a license issued as a disciplinary measure to an agency that has previously been issued a full license but is out of compliance with licensing standards.

(6) "Referent" means a person or agency who brings to the attention of the department a complaint or information resulting in an investigation or adverse licensing action.

(7) "Requirement" means any rule, regulation, or standard of care to be maintained by an agency.

((~~(6) "Probationary license" means a license issued as a disciplinary measure to an agency that has previously been issued a full license but is out of compliance with licensing standards.~~))

(8) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services.

(9) "Serious issues affecting the health and safety of children" means allegations, which if true, place children at imminent serious risk of harm. Such allegations may include, but are not limited to, allegations of child abuse or neglect or allegations of licensing violations related to safety or health hazards, supervision problems, or excessive discipline or mistreatment of a child.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The department of social and health services shall adopt rules as necessary to implement RCW 74.15.020 and sections 2 through 4 of this act.

Sec. 7. RCW 74.13.090 and 1995 c 399 s 204 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) There is established a child care coordinating committee to provide coordination and communication between state agencies responsible for child care and early childhood education services. The child care coordinating committee shall be composed of not less than seventeen nor more than thirty-three members who shall include:

(a) One representative each from the department of social and health services, the department of community, trade, and economic development, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, and any other agency having responsibility for regulation, provision, or funding of child care services in the state;

(b) One representative from the department of labor and industries;

(d) One representative from the employment security department;

(e) One representative from the department of personnel;

(f) One representative from the department of health;

(g) At least one representative of family home child care providers and one representative of center care providers;

(h) At least one representative of early childhood development experts;

(i) At least one representative of school districts and teachers involved in the provision of child care and preschool programs;

(j) At least one parent education specialist;

(k) At least one representative of resource and referral programs;

(l) One pediatric or other health professional;

(m) At least one representative of college or university child care providers;

(n) At least one representative of a citizen group concerned with child care;

(o) At least one representative of a labor organization;

(p) At least one representative of a head start - early childhood education assistance program agency;

(q) At least one employer who provides child care assistance to employees;

(r) Parents of children receiving, or in need of, child care, half of whom shall be parents needing or receiving subsidized child care and half of whom shall be parents who are able to pay for child care.

The named state agencies shall select their representative to the child care coordinating committee. The department of social and health services shall select the remaining members, considering recommendations from lists submitted by professional associations and other interest groups until such time as the committee adopts a member selection process. The department shall use any federal funds which may become available to accomplish the purposes of RCW 74.13.085 through 74.13.095.

The committee shall elect officers from among its membership and shall adopt policies and procedures specifying the lengths of terms, methods for filling vacancies, and other matters necessary to the ongoing functioning of the committee. The secretary of social and health services shall appoint a temporary chair until the committee has adopted policies and elected a chair accordingly. Child care coordinating committee members shall be reimbursed for travel expenses as provided in RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.

(2) To the extent possible within available funds, the child care coordinating committee shall:

(a) Serve as an advisory coordinator for all state agencies responsible for early childhood or child care programs for the purpose of improving communication and interagency coordination;

(b) Annually review state programs and make recommendations to the agencies and the legislature which will maximize funding and promote furtherance of the policies set forth in RCW 74.13.085. Reports shall be provided to all appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1 of each year. At a minimum the committee shall:

(i) ((~~Review and propose changes to the child care subsidy system in its December 1989 report;~~

~~(ii)~~)) Review alternative models for child care service systems, in the context of the policies set forth in RCW 74.13.085, and recommend to the legislature a new child care service structure; and

((~~(iii)~~)) (ii) Review options and make recommendations on the feasibility of establishing an allocation for day care facilities when constructing state buildings;

(c) Review department of social and health services administration of the child care expansion grant program described in RCW 74.13.095;

(d) Review rules regarding child care facilities and services for the purpose of identifying those which unnecessarily obstruct the availability and affordability of child care in the state;

(e) Advise and assist the office of child care policy in implementing his or her duties under RCW 74.13.0903;

(f) Perform other functions to improve the quantity and quality of child care in the state, including compliance with existing and future prerequisites for federal funding; and

(g) Advise and assist the department of personnel in its responsibility for establishing policies and procedures that provide for the development of quality child care programs for state employees."