ByRepresentatives Senn, Dent, Kilduff, Eslick, Appleton, Callan, Macri, Corry, Frame, Pollet, Robinson, Thai, Caldier, Fey, Chopp, Bergquist, Lekanoff, Cody, Doglio, Gregerson, Goodman, J. Johnson, Leavitt, Santos, Ormsby, Riccelli, and Davis

AN ACT Relating to youth eligible for developmental disability services who are expected to exit the foster care system; amending RCW 43.88C.010 and 74.13.341; adding a new section to chapter 43.88 RCW; and creating a new section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature intends that this act help reduce the number of former foster youth with developmental disabilities discharged into homelessness or inappropriately placed in hospitals. The legislature further intends that the steps taken under this act maximize the use of the most cost-effective services for former foster youth with developmental disabilities.

The legislature intends that the caseload forecast council forecast under RCW 43.88C.010(11) be used to inform an expansion of developmental disability waiver slots to serve individuals upon an exit from a dependency under chapter 13.34 RCW or from extended foster care services as defined in RCW 74.13.020. Funding for the waiver slots for individuals included in the caseload forecast council forecast under RCW 43.88C.010(11) must be budgeted as a maintenance level cost.

(1) The caseload forecast council is hereby created. The council shall consist of two individuals appointed by the governor and four individuals, one of whom is appointed by the chairperson of each of the two largest political caucuses in the senate and house of representatives. The chair of the council shall be selected from among the four caucus appointees. The council may select such other officers as the members deem necessary.

(2) The council shall employ a caseload forecast supervisor to supervise the preparation of all caseload forecasts. As used in this chapter, "supervisor" means the caseload forecast supervisor.

(3) Approval by an affirmative vote of at least five members of the council is required for any decisions regarding employment of the supervisor. Employment of the supervisor shall terminate after each term of three years. At the end of the first year of each three-year term the council shall consider extension of the supervisor's term by one year. The council may fix the compensation of the supervisor. The supervisor shall employ staff sufficient to accomplish the purposes of this section.

(4) The caseload forecast council shall oversee the preparation of and approve, by an affirmative vote of at least four members, the official state caseload forecasts prepared under RCW 43.88C.020. If the council is unable to approve a forecast before a date required in RCW 43.88C.020, the supervisor shall submit the forecast without approval and the forecast shall have the same effect as if approved by the council.

(5) A councilmember who does not cast an affirmative vote for approval of the official caseload forecast may request, and the supervisor shall provide, an alternative forecast based on assumptions specified by the member.

(6) Members of the caseload forecast council shall serve without additional compensation but shall be reimbursed for travel expenses in accordance with RCW 44.04.120 while attending sessions of the council or on official business authorized by the council. Nonlegislative members of the council shall be reimbursed for travel expenses in accordance with RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.

(a) The number of persons expected to meet entitlement requirements and require the services of public assistance programs, state correctional institutions, state correctional noninstitutional supervision, state institutions for juvenile offenders, the common school system, long-term care, medical assistance, foster care, and adoption support;

(b) The number of students who are eligible for the Washington college bound scholarship program and are expected to attend an institution of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.92.030;

(c) The number of students who are eligible for the Washington college grant program under RCW 28B.92.200 and 28B.92.205 and are expected to attend an institution of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.92.030; and

(d) The number of children who are eligible, as defined in RCW 43.216.505, to participate in, and the number of children actually served by, the early childhood education and assistance program.

(9) The caseload forecast council shall forecast youth participating in the extended foster care program pursuant to RCW 74.13.031 separately from other children who are residing in foster care and who are under eighteen years of age.

(10) The caseload forecast council shall forecast the number of youth expected to receive behavioral rehabilitation services while involved in the foster care system and the number of screened in reports of child abuse or neglect.

(11) The caseload forecast council shall forecast the number of individuals under age twenty-one who are functionally and financially eligible for medicaid waiver services administered by the developmental disabilities administration who are also defined as dependent children under chapter 13.34 RCW and expected to exit dependency proceedings under chapter 13.34 RCW after reaching the maximum age for dependent children or the maximum age youth may be served through extended foster care services as defined in RCW 74.13.020.

(1) With respect to ((youth who will be aging out of foster care))children who are dependent under chapter 13.34 RCW and are expected to exit dependency proceedings under chapter 13.34 RCW after reaching the maximum age for dependent children, the department shall invite representatives from the department of social and health services ((division of)) behavioral health ((and recovery))administration, the ((disability services))developmental disabilities administration, and the economic services administration((, and the juvenile justice and rehabilitation administration)) to the youth's shared planning meeting that occurs between age seventeen and seventeen and one-half that is used to develop a transition plan. It is the responsibility of the department to include these agencies in the shared planning meeting.

(2) If ((foster youth))children who are dependent under chapter 13.34 RCW who are the subject of this meeting may qualify for services provided by the developmental ((disability services))disabilities administration pursuant to Title 71A RCW, the department shall direct these youth to apply for these services and provide assistance in the application process.

(3) For youth who are dependent under chapter 13.34 RCW and eligible for services administered by the developmental disabilities administration, the department shall convene a shared planning meeting that includes developmental disabilities administration staff when the youth is between ages sixteen and sixteen and one-half. This meeting shall be used to begin planning services for the youth in advance of his or her transition to adulthood. The shared planning meeting required under this subsection may include:

(d) Development of an action plan so that the services the youth wants or needs will be provided following the youth's exit from dependency proceedings under chapter 13.34 RCW.