SB 5429: Including referred and diverted youth in establishing community juvenile accountability program guidelines

This bill amends RCW 13.40.510 by including referred and diverted youth when establishing program guidelines, and defines “referred” youth as a youth who:

• Was contacted by a law enforcement officer who has probable cause to believe he/she has committed a crime;
• Was referred to a program that allows youth to enter before being diverted or charged with a juvenile offense; and
• Would have been diverted or charged with a juvenile offense if they were not referred to a program

SB 5429 also requires for DCYF to provide an annual report to legislature by December 1^st on a county by county description of the youth served by the programs funded.

Finally, DCYF would be expected to implement a stop loss policy when allocating funding , which may not result in funding losses over 2% annually, and to provide a report by December 1^st, 2019, on how funding is used for referred youth and the overall impact of funding use.