Subject of Possible Rule Making: Chapter 110-30 WAC, Child protective services; chapter 110-148 WAC, Licensing requirements for child foster homes; chapter 110-300 WAC, Foundational quality standards for early learning programs; chapter 110-301 WAC, Foundational quality standards for school-age programs; and chapter 110-302 WAC, Foundational quality standards for outdoor nature-based child care.

Statutes Authorizing the Agency to Adopt Rules on this Subject: SSB [2SSB] 6006, SB [SSB] 5453; 22 U.S.C. Sec. 7101 et seq.; RCW 74.13.031, 74.04.050, 74.15.030, 43.215.070, 43.215.201, 43.216.055, 43.216.065, and 43.216.742.

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: The child welfare division and licensing division are making changes to the child protective services WAC in chapter 110-30 and other related rules to align with the revised definition in RCW 26.44.020 for "abuse or neglect" to include "sex trafficking" and "severe forms of trafficking in persons" that will go into effect on July 1, 2025, per SB [2SSB] 6006, and "female genital mutilation," per SB [SSB] 5453, which went into effect on April 20, 2023.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Cameron Norton, phone 509-991-0748, email Cameron.Norton@dcyf.wa.gov; or Nicole Clark, 1500 Jefferson Street S.E., Olympia, WA 98501, email Nicole.Clark@dcyf.wa.gov, website www.dcyf.wa.gov.