Child Care Bill Passes Senate

A new bill setting broad parameters for the state’s welfare-to-work program passed the Senate yesterday, 27-20, with a key measure restored.

The Senate Human Services and Corrections committee had pared down a mandated review schedule of family eligibility for the child care voucher program Working Connections from 12 months to six. But the Senate Ways and Means Committee re-inserted the bill’s initial 12-month provision.

The bill that the Senate passed originated in the House. The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Ruth Kagi (D-Shoreline), says DSHS already checks on a household’s eligibility every six months, sometimes more often. Less frequent check-ups, she says, can cut administrative costs and give families who send their kids to day care with a Working Connections coupon some breathing room. If the state intervenes too frequently, she says, “kids are getting pulled out [of child care], then put back in again.”

Working Connections is facing another challenge in the House, where $30 million of Gov. Gregoire’s initial $49 million reduction still holds. Advocates and officials have said that the loss could send the working poor to a waiting list, and Rep. Mary Helen Roberts (D-Edmonds) has proposed restoring the funding.

Kagi says there is “moderate support” within the House Democratic caucus for such a move: “I don’t think people realize what a difference,” she says, that Working Connections makes to low-wage households.