Washington State 2024 Legislative Wrap-up

Council for a Strong America in Washington State is comprised of ReadyNation WA and Mission: Readiness WA members. We have 150 ReadyNation WA members who are business leaders from high-tech, financial services, professional services, media/communications, and other industries. There are currently 20 retired military leaders in Mission: Readiness WA.

During the 2024 legislative session which ran January 8 to March 7, Council for a Strong America members took action to support policies and investments that increase access to high-quality child care and early learning programs. We see early learning as a two-generation approach – it helps the working families of today and impacts the development of their children, who are the citizens and workforce of tomorrow. We want children to have the strongest start in school and in life, enter kindergarten ready to learn, stay on track and out of trouble, graduate on time, and have optimal post-secondary opportunities whether that’s continuing their education or training, or entering the workforce right away, including pursuing a career in the military if they chose.

Legislative session actions

ReadyNation WA and Mission: Readiness WA members took considerable action during the 2024 legislative session to advocate on behalf of children and families. ReadyNation members submitted a total of 68 written testimonies and bill sign-ins to support our priorities, and Mission: Readiness members similarly submitted 71. In addition to these actions, members also met with several key legislators and attended in-person events across the state to speak up for increased access to affordable, high-quality child care.

Special thanks to ReadyNation member Michael Cade, who co-hosted our in-person member luncheon in Olympia as well as a CEO roundtable for business leaders in Thurston County to discuss the barriers and solutions for working families to access affordable child care. Thank you to Khevin Pratt who joined us for virtual legislator meetings prior to and during the legislative session to support increased investments in early learning facilities. We also want to acknowledge and thank all our ReadyNation members who took other actions: Dr. Brian Benzel, Michael Cade, Mike Edwards, David Graybill, Dave Hargreaves, Sue Krienen, Khevin Pratt, Byron Shutz, Gene Weaver, and Rufus Woods.

For Mission: Readiness, we’d like to give a special thank you to Major General (Ret.) Wallace Farris, US Air Force, for meeting in-person with Representative Mike Steele in Lake Chelan right after the close of legislative session to help present him with an appreciation for investments in early learning facilities, so that more learning space for children can be built and renovated. We are grateful to all our Mission: Readiness members who took action to speak up for kids and families, including: Lieutenant General (Ret.) Jan-Marc Jouas, US Air Force, Vice Admiral (Ret.) Ernest Riutta, US Coast Guard, Major General (Ret.) David de la Vergne, US Army, Major General (Ret.) Jon Root, US Army, Major General (Ret.) Edward Trobaugh, US Army, Major General (Ret.) David Eidsaune, US Air Force, Major General (Ret.) Wallace Farris, US Air Force, Rear Admiral (Ret.) Jeffrey Ruth, US Navy, and Rear Admiral (Ret.) Eleanor Valentin, US Navy.

Legislative session summary – overall and early learning

Fully in-person: The 2024 legislative session was back to normal operations after the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions were almost entirely virtual and the 2023 legislative session seemed like a somewhat cautious re-entry period. There are some features from the virtual sessions still in place like the ability to testify remotely and schedule virtual meetings. These features open up engagement options to citizens across the state and help legislators hear diverse input. In-person, there were many advocacy days where different groups came to the capital to speak up for the various issues they care about.

Modest but important investments: In even-numbered years, the legislature creates a supplemental budget. Meaning, they make edits to the two-year, or biennial budget, they developed in the previous odd-numbered year. For instance, in 2024, the legislature added about $2 billion in new funding to the nearly $70 billion 2023-2025 operating budget. About half of that new investment is for services and programs already underway that have caseload adjustments (i.e. obligatory spending) and the other half is for new items. Advocates are grateful for that new investment, yet it was still well below what legislators and advocates requested.

True supplemental budget: We heard many legislators and long-time advocates alike observing that this was a true supplemental session where the investments are more modest. The federal relief dollars buffered the financial hardships of the pandemic thus our state had an abundance of unanticipated resources to invest in the past two years. Those resources are mostly no longer available, thus this budget did not have discretionary funds to invest at the levels the state has had in the two previous years.

Early learning victories: Advocates requested policies and investments that increased mental health supports, increased access to affordable and high-quality care, and items to support the early learning workforce in addition to capital budget requests to create more learning spaces. The legislature made a number of helpful investments towards increasing access and expanding services in high demand.

Child Care and ECEAP

• Streamlining eligibility for early learning programs (2SHB 2124). $1.246M for policy implementation. Families participating in the birth to three state (ECEAP) and federal (Head Start) intensive programs will have less bureaucracy to maintain a full calendar year of access. Additionally, providers at state and federal programs (e.g. Early ECEAP, ECEAP, Early Head Start, and Head Start) will qualify for child care subsidies for their own children.

• Supporting child care and early learning providers (rate enhancements). These enhancements recognize the increasing cost of care and potentially incentivize more providers to offer these types of high demand services.

• Infant rate enhancement. $5.561M to increase the infant rate enhancement from $90 to $300.

• Nonstandard hours bonus. $772K to increase the nonstandard hours bonus from $135 in FY24 to $150 in FY25.

• Rate increases for ECEAP (our state PreK program) providers. $8.271M for a 5% school day (6-hour) rate increase and 9% extended day (10-hour) rate increase. As we approach ECEAP entitlement (meaning any eligible child who is not enrolled in the federal Head Start program, is entitled to be enrolled in ECEAP by the 2026-27 school year in ECEAP on a voluntary basis), these rate increases allow providers to recruit and retain more skilled employees and serve more children.

Other Early Learning Items

• Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) monthly count (SHB 1916). $4.291M so that ESIT providers can count eligible children for the full number of months they receive services.

• Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMH-C). $1.750M to expand IECMH-C capacity, maintain quality and increase access, and provide services by linguistically and culturally matched consultants.

• Early childhood workforce supports. $2.5M for professional development, which includes funding for Imagine U, as well as shared services and technical assistance for child care providers.