Subject of Possible Rule Making: Definitions of part-time and temporary employees of higher education institutions, and standards governing part-time and temporary employees of higher education institutions in chapters 357-04 and 357-19 WAC.

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: RCW 41.06.070 formerly exempted both part-time and temporary employees, as defined by the office of financial management (OFM), from state civil service laws. In 2018, the legislature amended RCW 41.06.070 by removing part-time employees from the exemption; only temporary employees, as defined by OFM, are now exempt from civil service laws (section 1, chapter 246, Laws of 2018). OFM's current rules do not distinguish between part-time and temporary employees of higher education institutions. Rule making is needed to bring our rules into alignment with the new law.

Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: All state higher education institutions. The process for coordinating this rule with the relevant stakeholders is described below.

Process for Developing New Rule: Draft rules will be posted on the OFM web site under "Rule-making activities" with information about how to submit comments. Draft rules will also be sent to a list of stakeholders as well as presented for discussion at stakeholder meetings to solicit comments and recommendations prior to publication of the rules for the rule-making hearing.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Brandy Chinn, OFM State Human Resources, P.O. Box 47500, Olympia, WA 98501, phone 360-407-4141, fax 360-586-4694, TTY 711 or 1-800-833-6384, email brandy.chinn@ofm.wa.gov, web site https://ofm.wa.gov/about/rule-making-activities.