HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 1454

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                 Children & Family Services

Title:  An act relating to training for child care providers.

Brief Description:  Requiring training for persons working with children at licensed child care facilities.

Sponsors:  Representatives Clements, Cooke, Ballasiotes, Dickerson, Tokuda, Wolfe, D. Sommers, Linville, Kessler, Scott, Blalock, Gombosky and Costa.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:

Children & Family Services:  2/13/97, 3/4/97 [DPS].

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN & FAMILY SERVICES

Majority Report:  The substitute bill be substituted therefor and the substitute bill do pass.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives Cooke, Chairman; Boldt, Vice Chairman; Bush, Vice Chairman; Tokuda, Ranking Minority Member; Kastama, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Ballasiotes; Carrell; Dickerson; Gombosky; McDonald and Wolfe.

Staff:  Doug Ruth (786-7134).

Background:  The Department of Social and Health Services is required to license child daycare centers and home daycares.  As part of its licensing authority, the department requires that operators and staff of daycare centers and home daycares possess certain qualifications.  The educational and training qualifications required are as follows:

Daycare Centers

Director:  Two or more years of successful experience working with children, AIDS/First Aid/CPR training, and 10 to 45 credits in early childhood education, depending on the size of the facility.

Lead Staff Person:  High school diploma or GED and AIDS/First Aid/CPR training.

Staff:  AIDS/First Aid/CPR  training.

Home Daycares

Director or Licensee:  AIDS/First Aid/CPR training.  One to two years of experience

(depending on number of children in care), and up to one class in early childhood education (depending on number of children in care).

Staff:AIDS, CPR and first aid training.

School Age Daycares

Director:  30 or more college credits in early childhood education (or equivalent), two or more years of successful experience working with school-age children, and AIDS training.

Site Coordinator:  30 or more college credits in early childhood education (or equivalent),, two years= work experience with school-age children, and AIDS training.

Staff:  High school diploma or GED.  Have school-age child development experience and AIDS training.

The Child Care Coordinating Committee was established by the Legislature in 1988 to provide coordination and communication among state agencies responsible for child care and early childhood education services.  The committee meets monthly and is required to submit yearly reports to the Legislature.

Summary of Substitute Bill:  Effective January 1, 1999, child care directors, supervisors, teachers and licensees of family daycares must receive 24 hours of department-approved instruction in early childhood and school-age care training, or complete two college credits in the same subject area.  The required instruction must be based on core competencies developed by the Child Care Coordinating Committee.  Employees and licensees at the effective date of the act will have 12 months to complete the training and may count training completed after 1990 towards the requirement.  All other employees and licensees will have six months to complete the requirement and may only count past training completed five years prior to licensure or employment.

Child care directors, supervisors, teachers and licensees of family child cares must also complete a yearly 10-hour continuing education course in early childhood and school-age education, or complete one college credit of instruction in the same areas.  Five hours of this training or college instruction must be in the area of  program management and operation.

Effective in 1997, the department shall design and administer programs for approving and registering training programs, for tracking the completion of approved training by employees and licensees of child care facilities, and for providing scholarships, grants, loans and subsidies to pay for the training of low income employees and licensees.  The department must also create a program for offering training to all child care employees not covered by the mandatory 20-hour training requirement.

Licensees and employees of child care facilities must complete training in age-appropriate first aid, CPR, AIDS, and blood borne pathogens.

The membership of the Child Care Coordinating Committee is modified to include   representatives from the Higher Education Coordinating Board and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.  The committee is required to review and recommend, to the Legislature, child care models for financing quality child care.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:  The original bill applied the training requirement to all employees of child care facilities and family daycares.  After 2004, it eliminated the six-and 12-month grace periods for meeting the training requirement.  The substitute preserves the grace periods indefinitely.  The substitute bill also moves the cutoff date from 1994 to 1990 for prior training that may be used to meet the 24-hour requirement.

The original bill expanded the child care coordinating committee to 37 members; the substitute retains the current committee size of 33.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date of Substitute Bill:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.  Sections 3 and 4 take effect January 1, 1999.  However, the bill is null and void unless funded in the budget.

Testimony For:  Better trained staff result in a safer and more fertile environment for children=s development.  Studies show that increased training improves the educational  potential of day care.  Children who receive quality care at the day care level do better in school later.  Parents want the caretakers of their children to have more training.  Relative to other states, Washington training requirements are low.  Twenty hours of training is a minimal and workable amount to require.

Testimony Against: None.

Testified:  Representative Clements; Elizabeth Thompson, Washington State Resource and Referral Network (pro); Billie Young, City of Seattle Child Development Program (pro); Stu Jacobson, Washington Parents for Safe Day Care (pro); Maralyn Thomas-Sheir, Seattle Central Community College (pro); Brint Sagle, Clover Park Technical College (pro); Nancy Schramm, advocate (pro); and Susan Kavanaugh, Department of Social and Health Services (concerns).