Background:

Student Supports.

Student supports include a variety of assistance designed to help students integrate into postsecondary education, persist, and complete. Student supports include advising, mentoring, counseling, tutoring, orientation programs, courses designed to teach new students about postsecondary skills and culture, and remedial programs.

Guided Pathways.

The Guided Pathways program is a research-based approach that simplifies higher education choices for students. Courses are grouped together to form clear paths within chosen fields to get students through college and into careers. Guided Pathways provides students with targeted advising to help them stay on their chosen path and evaluates learning outcomes as students progress down a path. The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) is implementing Guided Pathways at the community and technical colleges on a pilot basis. Six original colleges were chosen for the pilot and funded with a grant. Six additional colleges were funded by the Legislature during the 2017-19 biennium.

Conditional Scholarship Programs.

Conditional scholarships, or grants, are loans that are provided to a student for higher education purposes that may be forgiven in full or in part if the student completes their post secondary education and a service requirement. The scholarships are used as an incentive to get students to work in either high-demand professions or in professions with shortages and high need. There are a variety of conditional scholarship programs in statute, although all are not currently funded. These include the Health Professional Conditional Scholarship program, Future Teachers Conditional Scholarship program, National Guard Conditional Scholarship program, Pipeline for Paraeducators Conditional Scholarship program, Educator Retooling Conditional Scholarship program, and the Food Animal Veterinarian Conditional Scholarship program.

Summary of Bill:

Community and Technical Colleges.

The SBCTC must establish Guided Pathways at each community and technical college. Under Guided Pathways, each college must provide an evidence-based, mandatory, one-quarter student success course for all first-time students to take during their first quarter at the college. The SBCTC, in consultation with the Student Achievement Council and based on research, must approve each student success course. Three years after the first cohort of students complete the student success courses, the SBCTC must evaluate the efficacy of the courses by contracting with independent experts familiar with student success programs.

The Evergreen State College.

Beginning with the 2019-20 academic year, The Evergreen State College (Evergreen) must implement the Evergreen first-year experience program for all first-time, first-year students. The program must include a comprehensive, engaging approach to faculty and staff interdisciplinary teaching that uses best practices in student supports. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) must conduct an evaluation of the first-year experience program. A two-year preliminary report is due to the Legislature and the Student Achievement Council by December 1, 2021. A final four-year report is due December 1, 2023.

Beginning with the 2019-20 academic year, Evergreen must implement precollege immersion programs for first-year, first-time students that introduce students to the Evergreen pedagogy and experience, while familiarizing students with advisors, academic support services, and cocurricular activities. To implement the immersion programs, Evergreen must invest in an integrated planning and intensive advising technology platform that enables faculty and staff to identify and intervene with students at risk of attrition.

Behavioral Health Services.

The SBCTC must contract with an entity with expertise in higher education and behavioral health to develop a plan for all of the community and technical colleges to offer behavioral health services. The plan must be submitted to the Legislature by December 1, 2020, and include the following information:

current on-campus and off-campus behavioral health resources available to students;
the capacity of behavioral health resources and areas where services should be expanded, added, or modified;
recommendations on how to best provide behavioral health counseling to students at each college; and
a plan detailing how the colleges can implement the recommendations for expanding behavioral health resources to students.

The higher education institutions must add the following information to the back of newly issued student identification cards beginning with the 2019-20 fall term:

national, state, or local suicide hotlines;
emergency contact numbers; and
information about behavioral health counseling services that are available.

Central Washington University.

Central Washington University (CWU) must hire additional mental health counselors, case managers, a psychiatrist, a faculty lecturer, and create additional graduate assistantships. The graduate assistantships and faculty lecturer must be used to expand the capacity of the CWU's Community Counseling and Psychological Assessment Center. In addition, the CWU must work with county public health agencies to develop a public information campaign to increase understanding of what behavioral and mental health services are available and describes the challenges and symptoms students and the public experience. The CWU must develop guides that explain how to better access behavioral and mental health services and what steps are involved with access.

Eastern Washington University.

Eastern Washington University must train students who were successful in math and science classes to be peer mentors to provide supplemental instruction. The peer mentors must attend classes and hold office hours for students in the class.

Western Washington University.

Western Washington University must implement an enhanced career services model with embedded, integrated, and specialized services to increase student success and completion. The enhanced career services model must include:

detailed employment outcomes and workforce data that highlights potential career paths to prospective and new students;
additional academic and career counselors;
embedded career counseling throughout a student's program;
dedicated career specialists to work with students to identify appropriate coursework and internship opportunities; and
ongoing career support after graduation.

University of Washington Public Service Graduate Degree Conditional Grant Program.

The Public Service Graduate Degree Conditional Grant Program (Conditional Grant Program) is established at the University of Washington (UW). As the administrator, the UW has various responsibilities, such as collecting and managing repayments from participants, publicizing the program, and selecting students to receiving conditional grants. The UW's selection criteria for participants must emphasize whether the student has financial need, is a first-generation college student, is from a traditionally underrepresented population, and the student's commitment to both public service and to working in underserved communities.

To receive a conditional grant, a student must be accepted into a public service fee-based, self-sustaining graduate program, be a resident student, maintain enrollment, and make satisfactory progress toward completion of his or her graduate degree. The conditional grant amount may not exceed the difference between the fees charged for the participant's public service fee-based, self-sustaining graduate degree program and a similar graduate degree program's in-state tuition and fees at the UW.

A participant who receives a conditional grant incurs an obligation to repay the conditional grant as a loan with interest and an equalization fee, unless the participant is employed:

in a public service field in Washington;
with a federal agency serving underserved populations abroad in lesser developed nations;
with a nonprofit organization based in Washington serving populations in lesser developed nations; or
in a research assistantship or teaching assistantship with an applicable department at the UW in a similar field as their graduate degree.

The UW must develop repayment requirements for a conditional grant converted into a loan based on the Federal Direct Subsidized Loan Program, and on the following repayment schedule, each with interest and an equalization fee added:

for less than one year of service, the loan obligation is 85 percent of the conditional grant received;
for less than two years of service, the loan obligation is 70 percent of the conditional grant received;
for less than three years of service, the loan obligation is 55 percent of the conditional grant received;
for less than four years of service, the loan obligation is 40 percent of the conditional grant received; and
for less than five years of service, the loan obligation is 25 percent of the conditional grant received.

The UW is responsible for collecting repayments, maintaining records, and for forgiving all or parts of repayments under the Conditional Grant Program. The Conditional Grant Program Account is created.