Concerning business practices of registered tow truck operators by authorizing electronic records creation and storage.

Authorizes a registered tow truck operator's transaction file to be created and stored electronically.

Concerning paraeducators.

Creates the paraeducator board and requires the board to: (1) Adopt minimum employment requirements for paraeducators and paraeducator standards of practice;

(2) Establish requirements and policies for paraeducator specialty certificates in English language learner and special education;

(3) Approve courses of study necessary to meet the state standards of practice for paraeducators and the requirements for specialty certificates;

(4) Collaborate with the office of the superintendent of public instruction to adapt the electronic educator certification process to include paraeducator specialty certificates; and

(5) Distribute grants to a diverse set of school districts that volunteer to pilot the state paraeducator standards of practice and the paraeducator specialty certificates.

Requires school districts to implement a course of study for paraeducators on the state standards of practice.

Requires the superintendent of public instruction, in consultation with the paraeducator board and the professional educator standards board, to design a training program for teachers and administrators as it relates to their role working with paraeducators.

Requires the professional educator standards board, in consultation with the paraeducator board and the office of the superintendent of public instruction, to incorporate the following into the content required to complete a professional educator standards board-approved teacher or administrator preparation program: (1) For teachers, information on how to direct a paraeducator working with students in the paraeducators' classroom; and

(2) For administrators, information on how to supervise and evaluate paraeducators.

Addressing private health plan coverage of contraceptives.

Concerning eligibility for lifetime veteran's disability passes.

Authorizes disabled veterans, with a service-connected disability of at least thirty percent and who are residents of Washington or Oregon, to receive a lifetime veteran's disability pass for access to the state parks system at no cost.

Concerning witnessing a student's college bound scholarship pledge when efforts to obtain a parent's or guardian's signature are unsuccessful.

Addressing the Washington state health insurance pool.

Declares an intent to: (1) Extend the expiration date to December 31, 2022, for nonmedicare coverage in the Washington state health insurance pool; and

Concerning notice of charity care availability at time of billing and collection.

Defining veteran for the purpose of receiving certain benefits.

Revises the definition of "veteran," for the purpose of receiving certain benefits, to include a person who is in receipt of a United States department of defense discharge document DD form 214, NGB form 22, or their equivalent or successor discharge paperwork, that characterizes his or her service as honorable.

Authorizes veterans' scoring criteria to be claimed: (1) Upon release from active military service with an honorable discharge or a discharge for medical reasons with an honorable record, where applicable; or

Conducting a workforce study of employment opportunities in the agriculture, environment, and natural resources economic sectors intended to provide educators with the information needed for informing students about employment opportunities in the studied fields.

Requires the workforce training and education coordinating board to conduct a workforce assessment for the agriculture, natural resources, and environment sectors to: (1) Assess the available data on current and projected employment levels and hiring demand for skilled mid-level workers in those sectors; and

Establishing the legislative-executive WorkFirst poverty reduction oversight task force.

Creates the legislative-executive WorkFirst poverty reduction oversight task force to, among other responsibilities: (1) Reduce the overall percentage of people living below two hundred percent of the federal poverty level;

(2) Prevent and address adverse childhood experiences and the trauma of children who are living in poverty; and

(3) Direct the department of social and health services to develop a five-year plan and a ten-year plan to address intergenerational poverty.

Creates the intergenerational poverty advisory committee to assist the task force.

Concerning private wildland fire suppression contractors.

Requires the department of natural resources, for the maximum effective use of local fire suppression assets, to actively engage in ongoing prefire season outreach and recruitment of qualified wildland fire suppression contractors and equipment owners and compile and annually update a master list of the qualified contractors.

Addressing vacation leave.

Revises state government employee provisions to: (1) Remove the requirement that an employee must work at least six months before taking vacation leave; and

Concerning the forest riparian easement program.

Requires the department of natural resources to: (1) Share information regarding the carbon sequestration benefits of the forest riparian easement program with other state programs attempting to quantify carbon storage or account for carbon emissions; and

Concerning open educational resources.

Requires the student achievement council to: (1) Administer the open educational resources grant pilot program for the four-year institutions of higher education; and

(2) Develop an application form for a grant and a process for: Reviewing and selecting grant applicants; awarding grant funding; and the grant awardee to report back to the council on the use of the grant.

Increasing revenue to the state wildlife account by increasing commercial fishing license fees and streamlining wholesale fish dealing, buying, and selling requirements.

Continuing to protect water quality by aligning state brake friction material restrictions with the requirements of a similar nationwide agreement.

Prohibits a manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, or distributor from selling or offering for sale brake friction material containing more than 0.5 percent copper and its compounds by weight.

Exempts the following from the prohibition above: (1) Brake friction material manufactured before 2025 for the purposes of clearing inventory; and

Making financial services available to marijuana producers, processors, retailers, qualifying patients, health care professionals, and designated providers as authorized under chapters 69.50 and 69.51A RCW.

Streamlining distillery licensing and fees.

Concerning the statutory vested rights doctrine and establishing rules for determining what regulations control decisions on project permit applications.

Concerning the availability of sexual assault nurse examiners.

Requires the office of crime victims advocacy to develop: (1) Best practices that local communities may use on a voluntary basis to create mobile sexual assault nurse examiner teams and multidisciplinary teams to serve sexual assault survivors in local communities; and

Clarifying that hospitals and emergency medical facilities providing sexual assault examinations may seek reimbursement from a sexual assault victim's health coverage as long as the victim does not receive a bill or incur any out-of-pocket expenses associated with such reimbursement.

Concerning the gambling commission.

Prohibits money in the gambling revolving fund from being expended to exercise any power, duty, or authority of the gambling commission with respect to the commission's law enforcement powers, duties, or authority as provided in section 2 of this act.

Addressing protection product guarantee providers.

Enhancing public engagement with the legislative and executive ethics boards.

Requires the legislative ethics board and the executive ethics board to issue written advisory opinions upon the written request of a person or upon its own motion.

-- 2017 REGULAR SESSION --
Feb 14	First reading, referred to State Government, Elections & Information Technology (Not Officially read and referred until adoption of Introduction report).