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 1st 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 1st, 2019, on how funding is used for referred youth and the overall impact of funding use.
Amendements:
Updated on 4.12.19:
- Maintained the requirement that the Department of Children, Youth, and Families implement a stop loss policy that limits the loss in funding for any juvenile court from one year to the next, but eliminates the specific requirement that this stop loss policy limit any loss in funding to two percent from one year to the next.
House Committee Amendments (Updated on 4.12.19):
The substitute bill:
- Replaced the DCYF with the Committee as the entity required to implement a stop loss policy when allocating CJAP funding.
- Defined the Committee to mean a committee established by the JR division of the DCYF and juvenile courts that provide block grant funding formula oversight with equal representation from the JR division of the DCYF and juvenile courts.
- The purpose of the Committee is to assess the ongoing implementation of the block grant funding formula, utilizing data-driven decision making and the most current available information.
- The Committee is co-chaired by the JR division of the DCYF and juvenile courts who have the authority to change members of the Committee as needed to achieve its purpose.