WSR 15-01-069
PERMANENT RULES
DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
(Children's Administration)
[Filed December 11, 2014, 5:05 p.m., effective January 11, 2015]
Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
Purpose: New legislation regarding crisis residential centers, resource and assessment centers, prudent parent legislation, extended foster care and recommendations from the committee on the severe abuse of adopted children, require new rules for licensed foster homes, child-placing agencies, adoption centers and group care facilities. Improvements to the rules include:
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A plain-talk format to improve content and accessibility.
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A restructured sequence of specific rules to provide a logical flow to content. See WAC revision crosswalk (see reviser's note below).
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A division of specific license types to improve clarity of rules for each license category.
Licensed foster parents, child-placing agencies, adoption centers, and group care facilities may be impacted by these requirements. Group care facilities include semi-secure and secure crisis residential centers, emergency respite centers, group homes, group receiving centers, overnight youth shelters, resource and assessment centers, and staffed residential homes. Services provided by these license types include services to medically fragile and intellectual and developmental disabilities (formerly severe developmental disabilities), pregnant and parenting youth and maternity services, and day treatment services.
Reasons Supporting Proposal: Foster home requirements are currently combined with other types of licensing requirements, such as requirements for child-placing agencies, adoption centers and group care facilities. New chapters are specific to license type, providing foster parents a stand-alone chapter specific to foster home licensing. Single clearly-defined chapters for foster homes, child-placing agencies and adoption centers, and group care facilities will assist stakeholders with accessing requirements specific to their license type.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: See Reviser's note below.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: Chapters 13.34 and 74.13 RCW, RCW 74.15.030(2), 74.15.311(2), 74.13.032, 13.04.011, 74.13.020, 13.34.030, 74.13.031, 13.34.145, 74.15.311, 74.15.030.
Other Authority: Chapter 105, Laws of 2013 (HB 1261).
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 14-17-128 on August 20, 2014.
Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: See proposed and adopted text (see Reviser's note below).
A final cost-benefit analysis is available by contacting Randy Roberts, 1115 Washington Street, Olympia, WA 98504-5710, phone (360) 902-7872, fax (360) 902-7903, e-mail roberrm@dshs.wa.gov.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 339, Amended 0, Repealed 508.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 339, Amended 0, Repealed 508.
Date Adopted: December 11, 2014.
Kevin Quigley
Secretary
Reviser's note: The material contained in this filing exceeded the page-count limitations of WAC 1-21-040 for appearance in this issue of the Register. It will appear in the 15-03 issue of the Register.