BySenate Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Wellman, Darneille, Palumbo, Wilson, C., Kuderer, and Saldaña)

AN ACT Relating to increasing early learning access for children ages three and older; and amending RCW 43.216.512.

(1) The department shall adopt rules that allow the inclusion of children in the early childhood education and assistance program whose family income is above one hundred ten percent of the federal poverty level if the number of such children equals not more than twenty-five percent of total statewide enrollment.

(2) The department shall adopt rules that allow the inclusion, as space is available, of children who turn three years old at any time during the school year and whose family income is at or below one hundred ten percent of the federal poverty level and:

(a) The child has received early intervention services in the early support for infants and toddlers program; or

(b) The child has been a participant in the early head start or a successor federal program providing comprehensive services for children from birth through two years of age.

(3) Children included in the early childhood education and assistance program under subsection (1) of this section must be homeless or impacted by specific developmental or environmental risk factors that are linked by research to school performance. "Homeless" means without a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence as set forth in the federal McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act, P.L. 100–77, July 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 482, and runaway and homeless youth act, P.L. 93–415, Title III, September 7, 1974, 88 Stat. 1129.

(((3)))(4) Children included in the early childhood education and assistance program under this section are not to be considered eligible children as defined in RCW 43.216.505 and are not considered to be part of the state-funded entitlement required in RCW 43.216.556.