Health Professions Licensing.

Health professions are registered, certified, or licensed by various disciplining authorities.  Some professions have their own boards and commissions as their disciplining authorities, such as the Washington Medical Commission (WMC), the Board of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery, and the Dental Quality Assurance Commission.  The disciplining authority for the remaining professions is the Department of Health.
 
The disciplining authorities generally do not collect demographic information from licensees, either upon issuance of an initial credential or upon renewal.  The WMC, however, is required to collect demographic data on physicians and physician assistants at the time of license renewal.  The information may include practice setting, medical specialty, board certification, or other relevant data determined by the WMC.  The WMC's form for submitting this information requests information on race, ethnicity, gender, spoken language, and specialty.

School District Reporting.

School districts must submit demographic data on students to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) using federal guidelines on the reporting of ethnicity and race.  In addition to the federal standards, the school districts must:

• disaggregate the Black category to differentiate students of African origin and students native to the United States with African ancestors;
• disaggregate countries of origin for Asian students;
• disaggregate the White category to include subethnic categories for Eastern European nationalities; and
• collect racial and ethnic combinations for students who report as multiracial.

 
Student data-related reports required of the OSPI must be disaggregated by certain ethnic and racial categories, including White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, and Pacific Islander/Hawaiian Native.

Beginning January 1, 2025, all registered, certified, and licensed health professionals must provide the following information with their applications for initial licensure:

• race;
• ethnicity;
• gender;
• languages spoken;
• provider specialty, when applicable;
• primary practice location, if known; and
• secondary practice location, if known.

 
The same information must be provided upon renewal.  In addition, the individual must indicate whether they are currently practicing, the primary practice location at the time of renewal, and the secondary practice location if applicable.

The form used to collect information from licensees must include the same race and ethnicity categories and subgroups required for the collection of student-level data by school districts and data-related reports from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The Department of Health may not sell the information to any third party.
 
These requirements do not apply to physicians and physician assistants licensed by the Washington Medical Commission.