2020 Regular Session

ByRepresentatives Caldier, Callan, Dent, Corry, and Frame

Read first time 01/15/20.Referred to Committee on Human Services & Early Learning.

AN ACT Relating to requiring the department of children, youth, and families to submit a report regarding independent living services; and amending RCW 74.13.540.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 74.13.540 and 2013 c 39 s 30 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Independent living services include assistance in achieving basic educational requirements such as a high school equivalency certificate as provided in RCW 28B.50.536, enrollment in vocational and technical training programs offered at the community and vocational colleges, and obtaining and maintaining employment; and accomplishing basic life skills such as money management, nutrition, preparing meals, and cleaning house. A baseline skill level in ability to function productively and independently shall be determined at entry. Performance shall be measured and must demonstrate improvement from involvement in the program. Each recipient shall have a plan for achieving independent living skills by the time the recipient reaches age twenty-one. The plan shall be written within the first thirty days of placement and reviewed every ninety days. A recipient who fails to consistently adhere to the elements of the plan shall be subject to reassessment by the professional staff of the program and may be declared ineligible to receive services.

(2) By November 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, the department shall, in compliance with RCW 43.01.036, submit a report to the appropriate legislative committees that includes the following information on independent living services from the most recent state fiscal year that information is available, separated by provider to the degree possible:

(a) A description of the services that each independent living provider is contracted to provide;

(b) A description of the services delivered by each independent living provider;

(d) The average and median per capita expenditures on independent living services;

(e) The number of young adults eighteen to twenty-one years of age who received independent living services; and

(f) A description of the services administered to youth who transition between counties after their eighteenth birthday.

(3) If the department is unable to provide the data requested in subsection (2) of this section, it will provide a complete explanation of why it was unable to do so.