BILL REQ. #:  H-1506.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/20/13.   

     AN ACT Relating to the provision of short-term emergency and crisis care for children removed from their homes; amending RCW 74.15.020; adding a new section to chapter 74.15 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that when a child is removed from his or her home due to suspected abuse or neglect it can take several hours or even days for placement plans to be made for the child during which time caseworkers have to care for the child while also trying to locate an appropriate placement for him or her. The legislature also finds that licensed foster homes are often unable to take a child into their home if his or her care needs have not been thoroughly assessed or he or she is in immediate need of health care or social services. The legislature further finds that there are organizations in our state that are providing or wanting to provide short-term emergency and crisis care for children under the age of thirteen; however, there is currently no appropriate, cost-effective licensure category for organizations to provide these services. The legislature intends to create a resource and assessment center license for agencies to provide short-term emergency and crisis care for children ages birth through twelve, or for children ages thirteen through seventeen who have a sibling under thirteen years of age who have been removed from their homes by child protective services or law enforcement. The legislature further intends that resource and assessment centers be reimbursed at the same rate as foster family homes.

Sec. 2   RCW 74.15.020 and 2012 c 10 s 61 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter and RCW 74.13.031 unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "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) "Child-placing agency" means an agency which places a child or children for temporary care, continued care, or for adoption;
     (b) "Community facility" means a group care facility operated for the care of juveniles committed to the department under RCW 13.40.185. A county detention facility that houses juveniles committed to the department under RCW 13.40.185 pursuant to a contract with the department is not a community facility;
     (c) "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;
     (d) "Emergency respite center" is an agency that may be commonly known as a crisis nursery, that provides emergency and crisis care for up to seventy-two hours to children who have been admitted by their parents or guardians to prevent abuse or neglect. Emergency respite centers may operate for up to twenty-four hours a day, and for up to seven days a week. Emergency respite centers may provide care for children ages birth through seventeen, and for persons eighteen through twenty with developmental disabilities who are admitted with a sibling or siblings through age seventeen. Emergency respite centers may not substitute for crisis residential centers or HOPE centers, or any other services defined under this section, and may not substitute for services which are required under chapter 13.32A or 13.34 RCW;
     (e) "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;
     (f) "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;
     (g) "HOPE center" means an agency licensed by the secretary to provide temporary residential placement and other services to street youth. A street youth may remain in a HOPE center for thirty days while services are arranged and permanent placement is coordinated. No street youth may stay longer than thirty days unless approved by the department and any additional days approved by the department must be based on the unavailability of a long-term placement option. A street youth whose parent wants him or her returned to home may remain in a HOPE center until his or her parent arranges return of the youth, not longer. All other street youth must have court approval under chapter 13.34 or 13.32A RCW to remain in a HOPE center up to thirty days;
     (h) "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;
     (i) "Resource and assessment center" means an agency that provides short-term emergency and crisis care for a period up to seventy-two hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays to children who have been removed from their parent's or guardian's care by child protective services or law enforcement;
     (j) "Responsible living skills program" means an agency licensed by the secretary that provides residential and transitional living services to persons ages sixteen to eighteen who are dependent under chapter 13.34 RCW and who have been unable to live in his or her legally authorized residence and, as a result, the minor lived outdoors or in another unsafe location not intended for occupancy by the minor. Dependent minors ages fourteen and fifteen may be eligible if no other placement alternative is available and the department approves the placement;
     (((j))) (k) "Service provider" means the entity that operates a community facility.
     (2) "Agency" shall not include the following:
     (a) Persons related to the child, expectant mother, or person with developmental disability in the following ways:
     (i) Any blood relative, including those of half-blood, and including first cousins, second 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 (2)(((a))), even after the marriage is terminated;
     (v) Relatives, as named in (a)(i), (ii), (iii), or (iv) of this subsection (2)(((a))), of any half sibling of the child; or
     (vi) 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 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) 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;
     (e) A person, partnership, corporation, or other entity that provides placement or similar services to international children who have entered the country by obtaining visas that meet the criteria for medical care as established by the United States citizenship and immigration services, or persons who have the care of such an international child in their home;
     (f) 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;
     (g) 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 assisted living facilities licensed under chapter 18.20 RCW;
     (h) Licensed physicians or lawyers;
     (i) Facilities approved and certified under chapter 71A.22 RCW;
     (j) 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;
     (k) 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;
     (l) An agency operated by any unit of local, state, or federal government or an agency licensed by an Indian tribe pursuant to RCW 74.15.190;
     (m) A maximum or medium security program for juvenile offenders operated by or under contract with the department;
     (n) 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.
     (3) "Department" means the state department of social and health services.
     (4) "Juvenile" means a person under the age of twenty-one who has been sentenced to a term of confinement under the supervision of the department under RCW 13.40.185.
     (5) "Performance-based contracts" or "contracting" means the structuring of all aspects of the procurement of services around the purpose of the work to be performed and the desired results with the contract requirements set forth in clear, specific, and objective terms with measurable outcomes. Contracts may also include provisions that link the performance of the contractor to the level and timing of the reimbursement.
     (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.
     (7) "Requirement" means any rule, regulation, or standard of care to be maintained by an agency.
     (8) "Secretary" means the secretary of social and health services.
     (9) "Street youth" means a person under the age of eighteen who lives outdoors or in another unsafe location not intended for occupancy by the minor and who is not residing with his or her parent or at his or her legally authorized residence.
     (10) "Supervising agency" means an agency licensed by the state under RCW 74.15.090 or an Indian tribe under RCW 74.15.190 that has entered into a performance-based contract with the department to provide child welfare services.
     (11) "Transitional living services" means at a minimum, to the extent funds are available, the following:
     (a) Educational services, including basic literacy and computational skills training, either in local alternative or public high schools or in a high school equivalency program that leads to obtaining a high school equivalency degree;
     (b) Assistance and counseling related to obtaining vocational training or higher education, job readiness, job search assistance, and placement programs;
     (c) Counseling and instruction in life skills such as money management, home management, consumer skills, parenting, health care, access to community resources, and transportation and housing options;
     (d) Individual and group counseling; and
     (e) Establishing networks with federal agencies and state and local organizations such as the United States department of labor, employment and training administration programs including the workforce investment act which administers private industry councils and the job corps; vocational rehabilitation; and volunteer programs.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 74.15 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The secretary is authorized to license resource and assessment centers if the agency meets the following requirements:
     (a) There is a demonstrated need in the local community for a resource and assessment center;
     (b) The resource and assessment center will be primarily staffed by trained volunteers; and
     (c) The resource and assessment center demonstrates it is not financially dependent on reimbursement from the state to operate.
     (2) The department may adopt rules to specify licensing requirements for resource and assessment centers. Rules adopted by the department shall allow:
     (a) A sufficient number of trained volunteers to meet staffing requirements;
     (b) Flexibility in hours of operation and not require the resource and assessment center to be open if there are no children in its care; and
     (c) The ability to operate in a residential area.
     (3) Resource and assessment centers licensed under this section may:
     (a) Provide care for children ages birth through twelve, or for children ages thirteen through seventeen who have a sibling or siblings under thirteen years of age who are being admitted to the resource and assessment center; and
     (b) Operate up to twenty-four hours per day, and for up to seven days per week.
     (4) Resource and assessment centers may not be used to address placement disruptions for children who have been removed from a foster home because of behavior or safety concerns.