EARLY CAMPAIGN & ADMINISTRATIVE ADVOCACY 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 early campaigns and administrative advocacy items 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.

Item	Status	Position & Analysis	How to get involved
Early Learning
Increase ECEAP rates	Funding included in House and Senate budget proposals. Details will be finalized in the combined budget.	Support: Low ECEAP rates create hardships for providers and shortages in quality care for children in our community. High turnover rates for ECEAP educators cause disruption in education and trust building for children in childcare. Given the September 2023 expiration of temporary federal funds, increased rates will be critical to safeguarding child care system sustainability.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item! In the meantime, you can learn more here
Expand WCCC Subsidy	New law from 2023 included providers whose household incomes did not exceed 85% of the state median household income. Further action should ensure this policy is funded and fully implemented.	Support: Providing WCCC subsidies to all child care staff improves access to families who need to access early learning, while also improving sustainability for employees to remain in child care work in Washington. The proposal improves equity by ensuring that families are able to care for their own children while they work to care for others, safeguarding access to quality early learning. Shortages also disproportionately affect communities that have a lower average discretionary income.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item! In the meantime, you can learn more here
Direct DCYF to work with providers	New law in 2020 directed DCYF to work with community stakeholders to develop a new community-based training pathway. This administrative process should be focused on revising requirements to improve equity.	Monitoring: Inequities in educational pathways needed to work in child care harm both potential staff and families who rely on a sustainable child care work force. The legislature has directed DCYF to work with community stakeholders to discern a community-based pathway as an alternative to college credits-based certification. We are monitoring to ensure that the rulemaking process simultaneously prioritizes high-quality child care and revisions that improve inclusion and access in child care work.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item! In the meantime, you can learn more here
Safeguard Transition to Kindergarten	New law replaced transitional kindergarten to transition to kindergarten programming. Rules need to be be finalized by the 2024-2025 school year, and local context will need to be centered in discussion with lawmakers.	Monitoring: Transition to Kindergarten (TK) is a recurring policy priority for Children’s Alliance, with an emphasis on ensuring that expanding TK programs maintain excellence as early learning spaces. Many of Washington’s kids have gaps in their preparation for kindergarten, and TK serves as a prominent bridge when implemented well.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item! In the meantime, you can learn more here
Holding Hope/ IECMHC	Included in House budget proposal, at $1.75M, including $150K in allocations specifically for rural communities.	Support: The Holding Hope proposal builds on existing programming to expand mental health consultations and partnerships across child care settings. These partnerships are crtiical to ensuring that every child has meaningful access to early childhood mental health. Additional funding is needed to clear long waitlists and create more reasonable provider-to-child ratios.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item! In the meantime, you can learn more here

Economic Justice
Capital Gains Tax	This initiative will appear on your ballot this November.	Support: The capital gains tax is a primary source of funding for our state's early learning, child care, and school contruction industries. In it's first year of implimentation, the capital gains tax raised over triple the expectations, allowing our state to invest heavily in the wellbeing and education outlook of Washington's children and youth. Some greedy bad actors are attempting to reverse this tax because they do not want to pay their fair share, and do not see public education and child care as a worthy expenditure of their tax dollars. We disagree, and will fight strongly to protect the capital gains tax and ensure that children and youth in Washington know and see that they are prioritized.	Register to vote! Help stop a potential ballot initiative from allowing greedy bad actors to avoid paying their fair share. Sign up for our mailing list to learn about opportunities to get involved in our advocacy related to this item.

Health Equity
Dental Therapy	Administrative advocacy - The dental therapy bill was signed into law in May 2023 and the Washington State Department of Health Dental Quality Assurance Commission is currently working to implement this new law through the public rule-making process.	Support: This new law allows for dental therapists to practice state-wide, improving access to care by addressing provider shortages. With a scope of practice between a dental hygeinest and a dentist, dental therapists will increase oral health equity in our state by providing care to rural communities, under-resources populations, and those insured with Apple Health.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item.
CYBHWG Recommendations	The work group recommendations have been partially adopted in the current proposed budget. Children's Alliance will be monitoring the amendments and negotiations to maximize the state's investment in youth behavioral health.	Support: These recommendations, primarily in the form of administrative changes and budget requests, will address the youth behavioral health crisis from multiple angles, such as provider shortages, care accessibility, funding for schools and clinics, and supports for schools. With an issue as interconnected as behavioral health, it is necessary to approach the ossieu from multiple angles, and the CYBHWG recommendations are a strong step towards a solution.	Attend the regularly-held public zoom meetings of the CYBHWG main work group. No meetings are currently scheduled. Please check back for updates.
Female Genital Cutting Ban	Administrative advocacy - The female genital cutting bill was signed into law in April 2023 and took effect immediately.	Support: Female Genital Cutting is an extreme form of gender-based violence, a specific violence against women and girls, a sexual assault, a domestic violence, a child abuse, a human rights violation, and a development impediment that affects more than 200 million women and girls in the world with long-lasting and irreversible consequences. For this reason it is paramount that this practice not be allowed as it directly harms the livlihood and wellbeing of young women and girls across the world. This new law clarifies teh criminal nature of this act and reaffirms that it is not permissable to engage in FGC in Washington.	Sign up for our action alert list to be made aware of opportunities to get involved in our advocacy to support this item.