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Legislative updates for DD advocates - Monday evenings starting January 25
Here is a look at hearings this week on bills that disability advocates might be interested in. Highlighted names indicate legislators who represent King County.
These represent just a few of the bills under consideration this week. For the full list, please check the daily agenda here. Please note the agendas can change at any time.
Public hearings are streamed on TVW.
You can watch them live, or once they have been archived. This year,
public testimony will also be remote. You MUST sign up in advance to
testify.
- Bills of interest to the DD community - This list is maintained by The Arc of Washington. It captures most bills that touch on developmental disability.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2021
House Children, Youth & Families committee; 1:30 pm
Work Session: Hotel stays for youth involved with child welfare
HB 1061 - Concerning youth eligible for developmental disability services who are expected to exit the child welfare system
Sponsors: Senn, Dent, Leavitt, Wicks, Slatter, Wylie, Simmons, Kloba, Ortiz-Self, Gregerson, Callan, Young, Morgan, Frame, Santos, Rule, Davis
Our take: We support this bill; it is similar to one advocates supported last session. We are concerned, though, that foster youth with I/DD will exit to a DDA waiting list of 14,000. The state should prioritize eligible former foster youth for DDA waivers. The state should also move up the timeline to support foster youth in applications to DDA from age 17 to age 15, so more DDA candidates can take part in the bill's proposed shared planning meetings at age 16.
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Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education committee; 1:30 pm
Video not yet available
SB 5037 - Establishing transparent school opening metrics tied to COVID-19 prevalence
Sponsors: Braun, Mullet, Brown, Dozier, Holy, King, Schoesler, Wagoner, Wilson, L.
- Directs school districts and charter schools to use certain metrics during COVID-19 to determine the education modality for the schools in each county.
- Requires in-person learning in certain circumstances.
- Requires the Secretary of Health, State Board of Health, and local health officers to act in accordance with the education modality requirements.
- Prohibits emergency orders by the Governor from superseding, waiving, or suspending statutory and regulatory obligations concerning education modalities.
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SB 5147 - Exploring alternative school calendars
Sponsors: Hawkins, Wellman, Billig, Dhingra, Frockt, Hasegawa, Kuderer, Muzzall, Nobles, Rivers, Saldaña, Wilson, C.
- Directs the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to establish a program to allow up to 50 school districts to extend the number of instructional days in a school year to 210 days.
- Directs OSPI to establish a program to allow up to 50 school districts to provide 180 instructional days over the course of the entire calendar year.
- Establishes that in order to participate in the programs, a school district must have an enrollment of over 500 students and a majority of students qualify for free and reduced price meals.
- Requires OSPI to report on various program outcomes.
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Senate Health & Long Term Care committee; 1:30 pm
Video not yet available
Work Session: Health equity work in the public and private sectors
SB 5052 - Concerning the creation of health equity zones
Sponsors: Keiser, Randall, Cleveland, Conway, Das, Frockt, Hasegawa, Kuderer, Lovelett, Nguyen, Nobles, Robinson, Saldaña, Salomon, Wilson, C.
- Requires the Department of Health to designate health equity zones based on health disparity data and work with community groups to develop projects to address inequalities.
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SB 5056 - Concerning wilderness therapy programs
Sponsors: Salomon, Hunt, Cleveland, Das
- Requires the Department of Health to create a business license for wilderness therapy programs.
- Provides parameters for wilderness therapy programs.
- Requires rulemaking for wilderness therapy programs to be completed by December 31, 2022.
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House Health Care & Wellness committee; 1:30 pm
Video ot yet available
HB 1086 - Creating the state office of behavioral health consumer advocacy
Sponsors: Simmons, Caldier, Bateman, Ortiz-Self, Shewmake, Ryu, Chopp, Cody, Goodman, Fey, Stonier, Macri, Fitzgibbon, Frame, Davis
- Eliminates regional behavioral health ombuds services and establishes the State Office of Behavioral Health Consumer Advocacy (SOBHCA) to coordinate the activities of behavioral health advocates across the state.
- Directs the SOBHCA to certify and coordinate the activities of behavioral health advocates throughout the state.
- Requires Medicaid managed care organizations to contract with the SOBHCA to reimburse it for behavioral health consumer advocacy services provided to their enrollees.
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HB 1120 - Concerning state of emergency operations impacting long-term services and supports
Sponsors: Tharinger, Harris, Cody, Riccelli, Stonier, Macri
- Changes requirements relating to background checks for long-term care workers.
- Alters certain regulatory requirements relating to long-term care facilities in the event of a pandemic, natural disaster, or other declared state of emergency.
- Allows registered nurses to delegate glucose monitoring and testing.
- Changes supervision and evaluation requirements relating to the delegation of insulin injections by a registered nurse.
- Changes licensing requirements for nursing assistants
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021
House Education committee; 8 am
HB 1121 - Concerning the emergency waiver of graduation requirements
Sponsors: Santos, Ybarra, Ortiz-Self, Gregerson, Paul, Stonier, Pollet, Bergquist, Harris-Talley
- Authorizes the State Board of Education to permit public and private
schools to grant individual student emergency waivers from credit and
subject area graduation requirements, graduation pathway requirements,
or both, due to a disruption from a local, state, or national
emergency.
- Makes students in the graduating class of 2020 and subsequent classes eligible for the emergency waiver program.
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House Civil Rights and Judiciary committee, 10 am
HB 1197 - Concerning health care decisions made by a designated person
Sponsors: Riccelli, Tharinger, Cody, Pollet, Harris-Talley- Allows a patient, while competent, to designate a health care proxy by informing certain health care providers, who would then be required to sign and enter the information into the patient’s health record
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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Senate Law & Justice committee; 10:30 am
SB 5066 - Concerning a peace officer's duty to intervene
Sponsors: Dhingra, Das, Darneille, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hunt, Keiser, Kuderer, Liias, Lovelett, Mullet, Nguyen, Nobles, Pedersen, Saldaña, Salomon, Stanford, Wilson, C.
- Requires a peace officer to intervene when the officer witnesses a fellow peace officer engaging in the use of excessive force.
- Requires a peace officer who observes wrongdoing by a fellow officer to report the wrongdoing to the officer's supervisor.
- Requires law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies on the duty to intervene and ensure that all law enforcement officers obtain training on the policy through the Criminal Justice Training Commission.
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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Senate Ways & Means committee; 4 pm
Work session:
- Tax Structure Work Group preliminary report.
- JLARC tax preference review.
- Presentation of the final Senate Committee on Economic Recovery report.
You should be able to find work session documents here
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2021
House Children, Youth & Families committee; 8 am
Work session: Racial disproportionality in child welfare.
HB 1227 - Protecting the rights of families responding to allegations of abuse or neglect of a child. (Keeping Families Together Act)
Sponsors: Ortiz-Self, Callan, Senn, Dolan, Fitzgibbon, Ramos, Davis, Santos, Macri, Gregerson, Young, Ormsby
- Modifies the standard used by hospitals, law enforcement, and courts to authorize detention or removal of a child from a parent.
- Requires the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to make continuing efforts to place children with relatives and requires such placement unless there is no relative capable of ensuring the basic safety of the child.
- Requires the court to release a child to a parent unless the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that removal of the child is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm and that the evidence show a causal relationship between the conditions in the home and imminent physical harm to the child.
Our take: This bill addresses several areas of potential bias in decisions to remove children from their parents, including explicit bias against families of color. It will also help prevent trauma that children experience when separated from their parents if it is not necessary to do so for their physical safety. The bill also requires DCYF to show by “preponderance of evidence that… [r]emoval of the child is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm” and clarifies that “existence of community or family poverty, isolation, single parenthood, age of the parent, crowded or inadequate housing, substance abuse, prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, mental illness, disability or special needs of the parent or child, or nonconforming social behavior does not by itself constitute imminent physical harm.”
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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Senate Housing & Local Government committee; 10:30 am
SB 5160 - Addressing landlord-tenant relations by providing certain tenant protections during and after public health emergencies, providing for legal representation in eviction cases, and authorizing landlord access to state rental assistance programs
Sponsors: Kuderer, Liias, Conway, Das, Lovelett, Saldaña, Wilson, C.
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
Senate Housing & Local Government committee; 8 am
SB 5139 - Limiting rent increases after expiration of the governor's eviction moratorium
Sponsors: Das, Lovelett, Darneille, Hunt, Liias, Nguyen, Wilson, C.
Comment on this bill
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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House Children, Youth & Families; 10 am
HB 1213 - Expanding accessible, affordable child care and early childhood development programs
Sponsors: Senn, Chopp, Ramos, Bateman, Sells, Shewmake, Lekanoff, Peterson, Stonier, Duerr, Fitzgibbon, Berry, Rule, Davis, Wicks, Fey, Callan, Dolan, Frame, Lovick, Chapman, Ryu, Santos, Thai, Ortiz-Self, Orwall, Simmons, Slatter, Gregerson, Bergquist, Hackney, Valdez, Ramel, Riccelli, Macri, Goodman, Harris-Talley
Comment on this bill
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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House Education committee; 1:30 pm
HB 1085 - Promoting a safe learning environment for students with seizure disorders
Sponsors: Kloba, Vick, Volz, Leavitt, Ramel, Hoff, Graham, Chopp, Lovick, Stokesbary, Pollet
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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HB 1113 - Concerning school attendance
Sponsors: Ortiz-Self, Kloba, Pollet
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2021
Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education committee; 8:00 am
SB 5237 - Expanding accessible, affordable child care and early childhood development programs
Sponsors: Wilson, C., Dhingra, Das, Billig, Conway, Darneille, Hasegawa, Hunt, Keiser, Kuderer, Liias, Lovelett, Nguyen, Nobles, Pedersen, Saldaña, Salomon
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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House Education committee; 10 am
HB 1162 - Concerning high school graduation credit and pathway options
Sponsors: Stonier, Harris, Lekanoff, Hackney, Pollet, Dolan, Callan
Sign up for public testimony, provide written testimony, or note your position for the record
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HB 1295 - Providing public education to youth in or released from institutional education facilities
