This bill creates a new local option allowing counties to adopt ordinances to license and regulate child care centers and family home providers, notwithstanding certain existing state provisions. County ordinances may take effect no sooner than July 1, 2026, and counties must notify the Department of Children, Youth, and Families in writing 60 days before an ordinance’s effective date; the transfer of licensing and regulatory authority to a county occurs on the ordinance effective date. Counties that adopt local licensing must administer and enforce those activities, report quarterly to the department with specified information (the ordinances in effect, how they address enumerated regulatory areas, and a list of locally licensed providers with type and maximum children per license), and the department is prohibited from regulating those locally licensed activities or bearing civil liability for them. The department must provide technical assistance on request, compile a public list of counties that use the option, adopt rules to allow locally licensed providers to participate in the Working Connections Child Care subsidy and Early Achievers programs (requiring participation in Early Achievers for subsidy eligibility but not requiring a provider to hold or request a rating at any particular Early Achievers level), and contract with a third-party consultant—selected in consultation with local governments—to analyze local licensing and make the analysis available to the legislature by October 1, 2030. The bill also reenacts and amends RCW 43.216.010, adds or clarifies many definitions related to early learning, family services, and licensing (including definitions for extended day, full day, and part day programs; family resource centers and referral systems; inspection reports; low-income child care provider and neighborhood; negative action and nonconviction information; probationary license; and outdoor nature-based child care), and repeals RCW 43.216.695 (the 12-month county regulation pilot project statute) effective July 1, 2026. These are procedural and definitional changes, plus a repeal of the existing pilot statute. Some parts of the extracted text are incomplete: the definition of “enforcement action” is cut off, the bill text appears to continue beyond the provided extracts, and several earlier definitions referenced in the second chunk are missing from the extracts, so the full scope of changes to RCW 43.216.010 and any other sections is uncertain from the provided material.

If enacted, counties can choose to take over licensing and enforcement of child care centers and family home providers beginning July 1, 2026, which means those counties would hire or reassign staff to administer inspections, licensing, and enforcement, assume the legal exposure for locally licensed providers, and produce quarterly reports to the state about their ordinances and provider lists. Child care providers in such counties would face whatever local rules the county adopts (covering safety, staffing, records, program operations, etc.), and would need to participate in the Early Achievers program to qualify for Working Connections Child Care subsidies but would not be forced to obtain any particular Early Achievers rating level. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families would shift from being the direct regulator in participating counties to a role that provides technical assistance on request, maintains a public list of counties that license locally, writes rules to allow locally licensed providers to access subsidies and Early Achievers, and must contract for an analysis of how the local option is used by October 1, 2030. Important details are missing from the extracts provided—most notably whether the state will fund county licensing activities, how counties will set fees or cover enforcement costs, and some statutory definitions and enforcement provisions are incomplete—so the likely fiscal and administrative burdens on counties and any cost or fee changes for providers are unclear.