CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5237
Chapter 199, Laws of 2021
67th Legislature
2021 Regular Session
CHILD CARE AND EARLY LEARNING—VARIOUS PROVISIONS
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 25, 2021—Except for sections 105 and 503, which
become effective May 7, 2021; sections 201, 202, 301, 309, and 504,
which become effective July 1, 2021; sections 204 through 206 and
403, which become effective July 1, 2026; and section 505, which
becomes effective July 1, 2024.
Passed by the Senate April 22, 2021 CERTIFICATE
Yeas 27 Nays 22
I, Brad Hendrickson, Secretary of
the Senate of the State of
DENNY HECK Washington, do hereby certify that
President of the Senate the attached is ENGROSSED SECOND
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5237 as
passed by the Senate and the House
of Representatives on the dates
Passed by the House April 22, 2021 hereon set forth.
Yeas 65 Nays 32
BRAD HENDRICKSON
LAURIE JINKINS
Secretary
Speaker of the House of
Representatives
Approved May 7, 2021 11:12 AM FILED
May 7, 2021
Secretary of State
JAY INSLEE State of Washington
Governor of the State of Washington
 ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5237
AS RECOMMENDED BY THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Passed Legislature - 2021 Regular Session
State of Washington 67th Legislature 2021 Regular Session
By Senate Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Wilson, C.,
Dhingra, Das, Billig, Conway, Darneille, Hasegawa, Hunt, Keiser,
Kuderer, Liias, Lovelett, Nguyen, Nobles, Pedersen, Saldaña, and
Salomon)
READ FIRST TIME 02/22/21.
1 AN ACT Relating to expanding accessible, affordable child care
2 and early childhood development programs; amending RCW 43.88.055,
3 43.216.075, 83.100.230, 43.216.136, 43.216.505, 43.216.512,
4 43.216.556, 43.216.749, 43.216.090, 43.216.578, 43.216.010,
5 43.216.710, and 43.216.514; reenacting and amending RCW 28B.50.248,
6 43.84.092, 43.84.092, and 43.84.092; adding new sections to chapter
7 43.216 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 43.330 RCW; creating new
8 sections; repealing RCW 43.216.1365; providing effective dates;
9 providing expiration dates; and declaring an emergency.
10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
11 NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. SHORT TITLE. This act may be known and
12 cited as the fair start for kids act.
13 NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. INTENT. (1) The legislature finds that
14 high quality child care and early learning is critical to a child's
15 success in school and life. The legislature recognizes that COVID-19
16 has devastated the existing child care industry, making it unduly
17 burdensome for families to find care. The legislature recognizes that
18 without immediate action to support child care providers, and without
19 expanded access to affordable child care, especially infant and
20 school-age care, parents will not be able to return to work while
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 1 children lose valuable learning opportunities. In order to bolster a
2 full economic recovery, the legislature finds that every child
3 deserves a fair start.
4 (2) The legislature finds that access to affordable child care
5 increases economic growth and labor force participation. The
6 legislature further finds that an affordable, accessible system of
7 high quality child care is necessary to the health of Washington's
8 economy because employers benefit when parents have safe, stable, and
9 appropriate care for their children. The legislature recognizes that
10 too many working parents are forced to reduce their hours, decline
11 promotional opportunities, or leave the workforce completely due to a
12 lack of affordable and appropriate child care. The legislature finds
13 that a report commissioned by the department of commerce in 2019
14 found that working parents in Washington forego $14,000,000,000 each
15 year directly due to child care scarcity. The legislature recognizes
16 that this disproportionally impacts women in the workforce and that
17 in September 2020 alone, 78,000 men left the workforce, compared to
18 600,000 women.
19 (3) The legislature recognizes that quality child care can be a
20 stabilizing factor for children experiencing homelessness, and is a
21 proven protective factor against the impacts of trauma they may
22 experience. Access to child care is also a necessary support for
23 families with young children in resolving homelessness and securing
24 employment.
25 (4) The legislature finds that the scarcity of child care,
26 exacerbated by COVID-19, most significantly impacts families furthest
27 from opportunity. The legislature recognizes that there are
28 additional barriers to accessing this foundational support for
29 immigrant communities and families whose first language is not
30 English, families who have children with disabilities, rural
31 communities, or other child care deserts. The legislature recognizes
32 that high quality, inclusive child care and early learning programs
33 have been shown to reduce the opportunity gap for low-income children
34 and black, indigenous, and children of color while consistently
35 improving outcomes for all children both inside and outside of the
36 classroom.
37 (5) The legislature finds that without access to comprehensive,
38 high quality prenatal to five services, children often enter
39 kindergarten without the social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and
40 language skills they need to be successful and fall behind their
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 1 peers, facing compounding developmental challenges throughout their
2 K-12 education. The legislature finds that cascading impacts of
3 inaccessible child care and early learning programs create systemic
4 barriers for children and their families that result in higher
5 special education needs, greater likelihood of needing to repeat
6 grades, increased child welfare and juvenile justice involvement,
7 reduced high school graduation rates, limited postsecondary education
8 attainment, and greater barriers to employment in adulthood.
9 (6) The legislature finds the vast majority of child care
10 providers are small businesses and nonprofit organizations. In
11 addition to adhering to federal, state, and local regulations to
12 ensure healthy and safe environments for children, the legislature
13 recognizes that child care providers must ensure their employees are
14 adequately compensated and supported. However, the legislature
15 acknowledges that the reduced staffing ratios for health and safety,
16 additional cost of personal protective equipment and extra cleaning
17 supplies, increased use of substitutes needed during COVID-19-related
18 absences, and increased technology demands during school closures
19 from the pandemic are further straining the viability of the child
20 care business model in Washington state.
21 (7) The legislature finds that the health and stability of the
22 early learning workforce is pivotal to any expansion of child care in
23 Washington state. The legislature recognizes that the child care
24 workforce, predominantly comprised of women of color, is structurally
25 afflicted by low wages, limited or no health care, and a severe lack
26 of retirement benefits. The legislature further recognizes that the
27 threat of COVID-19 compounds these underlying issues, forcing
28 providers to navigate increased stress, anxiety, and behavioral
29 issues all while risking their lives to care for children. The
30 legislature recognizes that families, friends, and neighbors who
31 provide care are a critical component of the child care system. The
32 legislature finds that child care workers are essential and deserve
33 to be compensated and benefited accordingly.
34 (8) Therefore, the legislature resolves to respond to the
35 COVID-19 crisis by first stabilizing the child care industry and then
36 expanding access to a comprehensive continuum of high quality early
37 childhood development programs, including infant and school-age child
38 care, preschool, parent and family supports, and prenatal to three
39 services. The legislature recognizes this continuum as critical to
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 1 meeting different families' needs and offering every child in
2 Washington access to a fair start.
3 (9) The legislature recognizes that the federal government has
4 provided substantial additional funding through the coronavirus
5 response and relief supplemental appropriations act, P.L. 116-260,
6 division M., and the American rescue plan act of 2021. The purpose of
7 the additional federal funding is to ensure access to affordable
8 child care and stabilize and support child care providers affected by
9 COVID-19. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to use the
10 additional federal funding to supplement state funding in order to
11 accelerate these investments.
12 (10) The legislature recognizes the strengths that multilingual,
13 diverse early learning providers and caregivers contribute to early
14 learning across the state. Therefore, the legislature intends to
15 expand language access services to create an inclusive early learning
16 system that specifically supports underserved providers.
17 (11) The legislature intends to expand eligibility for existing
18 child care and preschool programs to increase access. The legislature
19 recognizes that expansion must be accompanied by an investment to
20 make child care more affordable. Therefore, the legislature intends
21 to eliminate copayments for low-income families and limit copayments
22 for any family on subsidy to no more than seven percent of their
23 income.
24 (12) The legislature further intends to stabilize, support, and
25 grow the diverse early learning workforce by funding living wages and
26 affordable health benefits while providing training, infant and early
27 childhood mental health consultation, shared business services, and a
28 variety of other supports that recognize the critical role that early
29 learning providers serve for all Washington children.
30 (13) The legislature intends to accelerate Washington's economic
31 recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 by dramatically
32 expanding access to affordable, high quality child care and
33 preschool, in order to get parents back to work and provide every
34 child with a fair start.
35 PART I
36 INVESTING IN CHILD CARE AND EARLY LEARNING
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1 NEW SECTION. Sec. 101. FAIR START FOR KIDS ACCOUNT. (1) The
2 fair start for kids account is created in the state treasury. Moneys
3 in the account may be spent only after appropriation.
4 (2) Expenditures from the account may be used only for child care
5 and early learning purposes.
6 NEW SECTION. Sec. 102. FAIR START FOR KIDS SPENDING GOALS AND
7 STRATEGIES. (1) The spending goals and strategies for the fair start
8 for kids account created under section 101 of this act include, but
9 are not limited to:
10 (a) Increasing child care subsidy rates, with the goal of moving
11 toward the full cost of providing high quality child care;
12 (b) Expanding health care coverage through state sponsorship of
13 child care workers on the Washington health benefit exchange and
14 providing consumer assistance through navigators, as well as any
15 other expansions of access to affordable health care for staff in
16 child care centers, family home providers, outdoor nature-based care,
17 and early childhood education and assistance program staff;
18 (c) Increasing child care and early learning providers'
19 compensation;
20 (d) Implementing the provisions of collective bargaining
21 agreements for family child care providers negotiated pursuant to RCW
22 41.56.028;
23 (e) Supporting and expanding access to the early childhood
24 education and assistance program to reach state-funded entitlement
25 required in RCW 43.216.556;
26 (f) Making child care affordable for families;
27 (g) Providing resources and supports for family, friend, and
28 neighbor caregivers that better reflect the full cost of care;
29 (h) Providing child care subsidies for families working to
30 resolve homelessness;
31 (i) Providing professional development opportunities and
32 supporting the substitute pool for child care and early learning
33 providers;
34 (j) Delivering infant and early childhood mental health
35 consultation services;
36 (k) Establishing prekindergarten through third grade systems
37 coordinators at educational service districts;
38 (l) Supporting youth development programs serving children and
39 youth ages birth through 12 including, but not limited to, expanded
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 1 learning opportunities, mentoring, school-age child care, and
2 wraparound supports or integrated student supports;
3 (m) Awarding grants and loans through the early learning
4 facilities grant and loan program established under chapter 43.31
5 RCW;
6 (n) Funding special designations in the working connections child
7 care programs, early childhood education and assistance programs, and
8 birth to three early childhood education and assistance programs
9 including designations established in sections 302, 304, 305, and 404
10 of this act;
11 (o) Supporting costs for transparent data collection and
12 information technology systems operated by the department and
13 department contractors, in particular, to ensure equitable systemic
14 service provision and outcomes;
15 (p) Providing access to learning technology;
16 (q) Providing child care resource and referral services;
17 (r) Conducting quality rating and improvement system activities
18 through the early achievers program;
19 (s) Expanding prenatal to three services and supports, including
20 the birth to three early childhood education and assistance program
21 and the in-home parent skill-based programs established in RCW
22 43.216.130;
23 (t) Building and delivering a family resource and referral
24 linkage system;
25 (u) Allowing the exploration of options to provide regulatory
26 relief and make licensing more affordable for child care providers;
27 (v) Administering comprehensive shared services hubs to allow the
28 ongoing pooling and shared use of services by licensed or certified
29 child care centers and family home providers;
30 (w) Training department staff to ensure consistent and equitable
31 application of child care licensing and quality standards across the
32 state including antibias and antiracist training;
33 (x) Providing incentives and supports for child care providers to
34 become licensed;
35 (y) Studying and evaluating options to incentivize business
36 participation in child care and early learning systems;
37 (z) Providing start-up grants to eligible organizations as
38 described in RCW 43.31.575 who provide or commit to providing the
39 early childhood education and assistance program or working
40 connections child care. Start-up grants must be used for one-time
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 1 start-up costs associated with the start-up of a new child care or
2 early childhood education and assistance program site; and
3 (aa) Recognizing the benefits of the diverse workforce and
4 facilitating communication in the three most commonly spoken
5 languages by developing a language access plan that centers on equity
6 and access for immigrants, multilingual providers, caregivers, and
7 families.
8 (2) This section does not interfere with, impede, or in any way
9 diminish the right of family child care providers to bargain
10 collectively with the state through the exclusive bargaining
11 representatives as provided for under RCW 41.56.028.
12 Sec. 103. RCW 43.88.055 and 2020 c 218 s 2 are each amended to
13 read as follows:
14 LEGISLATIVE BALANCED BUDGET REQUIREMENT. (1) The legislature must
15 adopt a four-year balanced budget as follows:
16 (a) Beginning in the 2013-2015 fiscal biennium, the legislature
17 shall enact a balanced omnibus operating appropriations bill that
18 leaves, in total, a positive ending fund balance in the general fund
19 and related funds.
20 (b) Beginning in the 2013-2015 fiscal biennium, the projected
21 maintenance level of the omnibus appropriations bill enacted by the
22 legislature shall not exceed the available fiscal resources for the
23 next ensuing fiscal biennium.
24 (2) For purposes of this section:
25 (a)