Creating a community care and supportive services program for veterans.

Requires the department of veterans affairs to select one county veterans' assistance program or community partner to pilot a community care and supportive services program that assists veterans and their families in rural or remote areas that do not have adequate access to federal veterans' benefits and reintegration services and other public services.

Concerning the shortage of public school teachers and substitute teachers.

Requires the superintendent of public instruction to: (1) Develop and implement a comprehensive, statewide initiative to increase the number of qualified individuals who apply for teaching positions in the state; and

(2) Develop mentor training program goals for the institutions to use in their teacher preparation program curricula.

Requires the workforce training and education coordinating board to develop and disseminate information designed to increase recruitment into professional educator standards board-approved teacher preparation programs.

Requires the professional educator standards board to create and administer the recruitment specialists grant program to provide funds to professional educator standards board-approved teacher preparation programs.

Requires each institution of higher education with a professional educator standards board-approved alternate route teacher certification program to develop a plan describing how the institution will partner with school districts regarding placement of resident teachers.

Requires the office of student financial assistance to: (1) Develop and administer the teacher shortage conditional grant program as a subprogram within the future teachers conditional scholarship and loan repayment program; and

(2) Administer a student teaching residency grant program to provide additional funds to individuals completing student teaching residencies at public schools in this state.

Establishes the teacher shortage conditional grant program, within the future teachers conditional scholarship and loan repayment program, to be administered by the office of student financial assistance.

Concerning physical education instructional requirements for public school students.

Requires the office of the superintendent of public instruction to develop a competitive grant program for school districts to increase compliance with certain physical education instructional requirements.

Concerning Central Washington University's fifth year promise.

Authorizes Central Washington University to offer a program that promises that a student enrolled in a four-year baccalaureate degree program will graduate within four years or Central Washington University will allow the student to enroll in his or her remaining required courses for free in the fifth year, as long as the student: (1) Commits to following a degree pathway developed in conjunction with his or her advisor and degree-planner software;

(2) Attempts to enroll in courses required for his or her degree program; and

(3) Maintains satisfactory academic progress.

Delaying implementation of revisions to the school levy lid and local effort assistance.

Declares that the legislature: (1) Recognizes that the system of state and local funding for school districts is in transition during 2016; and

(2) Intends to extend current statutory policies on local enrichment through calendar year 2019.

Concerning the regulation of alcoholic beverages.

Authorizes a domestic winery, during an event held by a not-for-profit society or organization holding a special occasion license, to take purchase orders and accept payment for wines of its own production and for off-premises consumption, subject to certain conditions.

Authorizes a special occasion licensee, in addition to offering the sale of wine by the individual serving for on-premises consumption, to sell wine in original, unopened containers for on-premises consumption if permission is obtained from the state liquor and cannabis board before the event.

Providing for fire protection district formation by the legislative authority of a city or town subject to voter approval.

Authorizes the legislative authority of a city or town, as an alternative to the petition method of formation for fire protection districts provided in chapter 52.02 RCW and subject to the approval of the voters, to establish a fire protection district with boundaries that are the same as the corporate boundaries of the city or town for the provision of fire prevention services, fire suppression services, and emergency medical services, and for the protection of life and property within the city or town.

Modifying the authority to appoint members to a certain ferry advisory committee.

Defining and using the term center-based services for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Specifying the documentation that must be provided to determine when sales tax applies to the sale of a motor vehicle to an enrolled tribal member.

Creating the Washington statewide reentry council.

Creates the Washington statewide reentry council within the department of commerce for the purpose of promoting successful reentry of offenders after incarceration.

Requires the joint legislative audit and review committee to conduct a performance audit of the council every six years.

Requires the state institute for public policy to conduct a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of programs aimed at assisting offenders with reentering the community after incarceration.

Requiring mandatory reporting of hazardous exposures for firefighters.

Requires the department of labor and industries to begin rule making to require the reporting of all hazardous exposures suffered in the course of employment by firefighters.

Exempts the following from public inspection and copying and disclosure under the public records act: Reports of hazardous exposures reported by firefighters.

Creating a program to provide students and the community with the means to report anonymously concerning unsafe or violent activities, or the threat of these activities.

Creates the students protecting students program, within the office of the superintendent of public instruction, to provide students and the community with the means to relay information anonymously concerning unsafe, potentially harmful, dangerous, violent, or criminal activities, or the threat of these activities, to school officials or, if necessary, to appropriate law enforcement or public safety agencies.

Requires at least one age-appropriate educational program, class, or activity designed to teach students about the students protecting students program to be made available, every school year, to students in each common school.

Expanding distribution dates for supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits.

Requires the department of social and health services to: (1) Expand the dates that it distributes supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits; and

Concerning accessing land during a fire suppression response for the purpose of protecting livestock from a wildland fire.

Requires the department of natural resources to: (1) Make every reasonable effort to accommodate a livestock owner's request to retrieve or care for animals in his or her charge that are at risk due to a wildfire;

(2) Incorporate the implementation of this act into prefire season training or coordination conducted in local communities that contain active grazing areas; and

(3) Include language that explains the right of access, and associated assumption of liability, in the text of a grazing lease.

Ensuring that restrictions on outdoor burning for air quality reasons do not impede measures necessary to ensure forest resiliency to catastrophic fires.

Requires the department of natural resources to conduct a forest resiliency burning pilot project with the goal of monitoring and evaluating the benefits of forest resiliency burning and the impacts on ambient air quality.

Creating the career and college-ready lighthouse pilot project.

Creates the career and college-ready lighthouse pilot project to provide an opportunity for students to: (1) Explore and understand a wide range of career opportunities through applied learning;

(2) Engage with industry mentors; and

(3) Plan for career and college success.

Requires the workforce training and education coordinating board to convene a career and college readiness advisory committee to advise the education and workforce sectors and the legislature on how to create the opportunities for students as mentioned above.

Requires the advisory committee to select, in cooperation with the office of the superintendent of public instruction: (1) Two innovative high schools to act as lighthouse mentors; and

(2) Four schools seeking to pilot innovative work-integrated and career-related instructional programs similar to those offered by the lighthouse mentors.

Requires the selected pilot schools to: (1) Implement a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum that can be delivered in the context of employment opportunities in one or more industry clusters, including manufacturing, building and construction, aerospace and maritime, and health and bioscience; and

(2) Submit the following to the workforce training and education coordinating board: An interim and end-of-project report that includes an evaluation of the effect of the instructional program on high school graduation rates, state test scores, industry and community partnerships, work-integrated learning experiences, and other relevant data.

Requires the workforce training and education coordinating board, in consultation with the advisory group, to use the pilot schools' reports, along with historical data from those schools, to evaluate the instructional programs of the lighthouse and pilot schools.

Addressing real estate as it concerns the local government authority in the use of real estate excise tax revenues and regulating real estate transactions.

Requires locally adopted ordinances, resolutions, or policies that impose certain requirements on sellers or landlords of real property to be posted electronically.

Concerning career and technical education materials, supplies, and operating costs.

Addresses the costs of exploratory and preparatory career and technical education courses.

Improving the fairness of Washington's tax system by narrowing the use tax exemption for extracted fuel.

Improving the fairness of Washington's tax system by narrowing the deduction for income received on real estate loans.

Improving fairness in the Washington tax system by narrowing the sales and use tax exemption for the purchase and repair of large private airplanes owned by nonresident entities.

Improving the fairness of Washington's tax system by repealing the business and occupation tax exemption for international banking facilities.

Providing accountability and transparency for aerospace-related tax incentives.

Establishes the aerospace tax incentive accountability act.

Declares that it is the legislature's specific public policy objective to: (1) Maintain and grow the state's aerospace industry workforce to one hundred thousand five hundred employment positions by 2040; and

(2) Provide tangible taxpayer accountability for the state's largest aerospace company by adopting a minimum employment baseline that must be met by the company to fully qualify for aerospace tax incentives.

-- 2016 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 22	First reading, referred to Finance (Not Officially read and referred until adoption of Introduction report).