Licensure by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
It is unlawful for any entity designated as an "agency" to receive children for supervision or care, or arrange for their placement in foster care or with adoptive families, unless licensed by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF).  Agencies include child care businesses, placing agencies, foster homes, group care facilities, resource and assessment centers, and numerous other types of entities.  Licensure rules designate requirements appropriate to the ages and other characteristics of persons served and services offered, as well as requirements for suitability of facilities and operations, background checks, staffing, safety and provision of necessary care, and record keeping, among other requirements.

The DCYF may issue a probationary license to a licensee who is temporarily unable to comply with a rule or has been the subject of multiple complaints or concerns about noncompliance, as long as the noncompliance does not present an immediate safety risk and the licensee has an approved corrective plan in place.  A license may be denied, suspended, revoked, modified, or not renewed upon proof that the licensed entity failed or refused to comply with licensing requirements or that the conditions required for issuance of a license no longer exist.  When a person or entity is denied a license by the DCYF, or their license is revoked, suspended, or modified, the person or entity has the right to an adjudicative proceeding.

Foster Care Licensing.

A foster care license is valid for a three-year period, and may be renewed at the end of that period.  Certain individuals and entities are exempt from licensure requirements, including physicians and lawyers.

Child-Specific License.

A child-specific or kinship license is issued for placement of a specific child or children and is available to relatives and relatives defined by the tribe caring for children in out-of-home care.  

Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.

The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) is a uniform law enacted in all 50 states.  It establishes procedures for the interstate placement of children and responsibilities for those involved in placing a child.  The placements covered by the ICPC include placements with parents, relatives, foster care, group homes, and certain residential facilities.

Crisis Residential Centers.

Crisis Residential Centers (CRCs) are short-term, semi-secure facilities for runaway youth and adolescents in conflict with their families.  Youth can remain in a CRC for up to 15 consecutive days.  There must be four staff members, and in no event less than 3:8 staff-to-child ratio, in a CRC.

Child Care Licensing.

Child care business licenses issued by the DCYF must specify the category of child care that a business is authorized to provide and the ages and number of children to be served.  To obtain an initial license, the applicant must complete a DCYF orientation and submit a license application that includes information about the applicant, information about the facility and staff, information about planned program operations, and required policies.  A full child care license remains valid as long as the licensee meets requirements for a nonexpiring license, including submitting annual documentation and continued compliance with licensing rules.

Child Care Subsidies.

Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) is a federally and state-funded program administered by the DCYF that provides subsidies for child care while a parent is working or participating in approved, work-related activities.  The WCCC program is available to families who meet certain eligibility and household income requirements.

The use of an electronic attendance system is required for children receiving a child care subsidy. The DCYF must refer all suspected incidents of child care subsidy fraud to the Department of Social and Health Services Office of Fraud and Accountability for investigation and action.

Foster Care Licensing.

The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is authorized to issue a child-specific license to a relative or close family friend for placement of a specific child in the care and custody of another state who is to be placed in Washington through the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.

Kinship care providers are exempted from completing blood-borne pathogen training.

The licensing exemption for physicians and lawyers receiving children for supervision or care is removed.

The DCYF is authorized to terminate a license to receive children for supervision or care when a license has been inactive.  The DCYF is required to develop rules in collaboration with impacted groups to define inactivity, assess for inactivity, and provide exceptions to termination for inactivity.  Termination due to inactivity is considered an enforcement action and is subject to appeal.  A probationary license must be immediately terminated when high-potency synthetic opioids or illicit substances are present in the home.

The specificity of licenses to receive children for supervision or care are limited to remove a designation for the sex of persons to be served so that licenses only specify the category of care which an agency is authorized to render and the age and number of persons to be served.

Crisis Residential Centers.

The staffing requirements for regional crisis residential centers with semi-secure facilities are modified to require 1:4 staff-to-child ratio during working hours and 1:6 staff-to-child ratio during sleeping hours (instead of four staff members and in no event less than 3:8 staff-to-child ratio).

Child Care Licensing.

As a condition of child care licensing, any child care provider accepting state subsidy must utilize an electronic attendance system that captures the daily check-in and check-out time of each child, verified by a parent or authorized guardian's electronic signature or biometric identifier.  Any child care licensee who is found to have committed child care subsidy fraud is permanently disqualified from child care licensure.  Additionally, exceeding licensed capacity constitutes grounds for license revocation, denial, suspension, modification, or nonrenewal.  In such circumstances, the DCYF must conduct an investigation that may result in license revocation.

(In support) This is a technical corrections bill.  The bill should clarify that no license be eliminated based on inactivity due to clerical errors. 

This bill will make it easier for kinship caregivers to get licensed by exempting them from the blood-borne pathogen training and allow them to receive child-specific licenses for children who are out of state and placed in Washington.

This bill also makes it easier for Crisis Residential Centers (CRCs), which are semi-secure facilities for unaccompanied homeless youth and adolescents in conflict with their families, to operate.  Right now, there are more staff than they probably need in order to be able to operate a safe, semi-secure facility.

Foster parents sometimes need to take a break.  The bill allows the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) to work with foster parents to make rules to define what "inactive" means so that the DCYF can stop continuing to staff the maintenance of a license when a foster home is no longer planning to take foster children.

The DCYF will develop a rule-making process taking input and feedback to come up with some rules to really define what would constitute inactive status, so the DCYF does not have to continue to staff employees for the maintenance of the license and a situation where foster parents have decided that they are not going to take children for a extended period of time.

In regard to the CRC staffing ratio changes, for decades the programs have operated with a 1:4 staff-to-child ratio during daytime working hours and a 1:6 staff-to-child ratio during overnight hours.  

The technical fix included in the bill will actually align state law with the long-term practice within these facilities.  This is a budget neutral fix that has no cost, and without the fix there will be a need to unnecessarily ask for additional funding to increase the staffing for these programs above the current practice, and force CRC programs to reduce the number of participants they can serve in a program because they do not have the staff to meet those staffing ratios right now.

In the biennial budget, the DCYF took cuts to the licensing division that resulted in a loss of five staff employees.  This bill takes steps to right-size the work of the licensing division to account for those cuts.

(Opposed) None.

Representative Adam Bernbaum, prime sponsor; Kim Justice, Partners for Our Children; Julie Watts, Department of Children, Youth, and Families; Derek Harris, Community Youth Services; and Mary Curry, Linked Arms and Pathways.