BILL TRACKER
Together, we can move our lawmakers to advance racial equity and improve the lives of Washington’s kids and families. This page contains details of the bills we tracked in the 2024 legislative session which ended on March 7, 2024.
See our Legislative Report for full details on all of the bills and budget items we worked on this year.
Questions? Please contact us.
Bill | Status | Position & Analysis |
---|---|---|
Early Learning | ||
HB 1945: Streamlining child care access for families with food assistance | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill allows receipt of food benefits to qualify as meeting income requirements for child care subsidies. |
HB 2124: Supporting and expanding access to child care and early learning programs | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill enhances and streamlines WCCC eligibility based on participation in Birth to Three ECEAP and Early Head Start, extends WCCC benefit eligibility to additional early learning programs providers, and considers dual language subsidies to inflationary increases. |
HB 1916: Funding for early support of infants and toddlers program | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill adjusts when services are counted for ESIT to ensure that a child's first month of support is accurately counted and funded. |
SB 5793: Paid Sick Leave | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill amends the definition of family for the purposes of sick leave to be more inclusive of households in line the with Paid Family and Medical Leave definition. |
HB 2102: Establishing requirements for the disclosure of health care information for qualifying persons to receive paid family and medical leave benefits | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill establishes requirements for medical providers to complete certification requirements for paid family medical leave within seven days. |
SB 5774: Increased capacity for timely fingerprint-based background checks | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill increases the capacity for timely background checks through fingerprint processes for providers working in early care spaces. |
HB 2111: Clarifying requirements for subsidized child care | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill reorganizes and clarifies requirements for subsidized child care to remove outdated references, streamline eligibility information for better accessibility, and revise references from immigration to citizenship status. |
HB 2331: Modifying requirements for public school instructional and supplemental instructional materials. | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill modifies guidelines for discerning instructional materials in classrooms and bans prohibition of materials on the basis that they discuss the role and contributions of a group or individual that belongs to a protected class unless the content includes discriminatory bias. |
HB 2195: Early learning facilities grants | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill amends funding opportunities for early learning facilities project (ELF) applications to improve access to resources for child care providers seeking to safely renovate, purchase, or build an early learning facility. |
SB 6038: Reducing costs for child care providers | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill expands B&O tax exemptions to providers who care for children under age 13, as well as children under 19 if there is a verified special need or court supervision in place. The bill's provision to eliminate licensing fees was not included in the final version. |
Economic Justice | ||
HB 1895: Modifying the Working Families' Tax Credit (clarify refunds, app reqs, eligibility verif.) | Governor signed into law, effective date 6/6/24 | Support: This bill modifies the Working Families Tax Credit by clarifying the refundable nature of the credit, the application requirements, and the eligibility verification process. |
Health Equity | ||
HB 1455: End Child Marriage | Governor signed into law, effective date 6/6/24 | Support: This bill would raise minimum age for marriage to 18, remove exceptions. |
HB 1946: Conditional Scholarships | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill enacts the Behavioral Health Scholarship Program under the Washington Health Corps to decrease provider shortages and encourage them to work in and serve under-resourced communities. |
HB 2256: Adjustments to the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group (CYBHWG) | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill updates the work group guidelines by adjusting timelines, reporting procedures, and membership requirements, including requiring representation of youth and educational service districts. |
SB 5853: Crisis relief serivices for minors | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill will allow crisis relief service centers to also serve minors, provided they are served in a seperate space than adults. |
SB 5580: Maternal Health Outcomes | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill will promote maternal health by increasing income limits for pregnant and postpartum persons to qualify for certain services, as well as creating a program to support post-delivery health for people with substance use disorders. |
SB 5829: Congenital Cytomegalovirus | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill directs the State Board of Health to consider adding Congenital Cytomegalovirus screening to the mandatory screening panel and submit a report with the findings and recommendations by December 31, 2025. |
HB 1957: Preventative Services | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill requires for health carriers to cover the same preventive services without cost sharing as required by federal law. |
HB 2247: Addressing behavioral health provider shortages | Delivered to Governor | Support: This bill modifies some licensing requirements and reimbursement procedures to support new behavioral health providers and address the provider shortage. |