This bill adds a new section to chapter 43.216 RCW that creates a temporary, procedural alternative pathway allowing licensed child care providers to use documented experience-based competency in lieu of holding an early childhood education initial, short, or state certificate until at least August 1, 2028. To qualify for the alternative, staff must be actively employed in a position that requires such a certificate, have completed and maintained required health and safety and child care or school-age care basics training, and meet an employment-continuity criterion (no break in service since August 1, 2021, or a cumulative seven years of employment), with all criteria documented in the department’s electronic workforce registry. The department must proactively recognize providers who already meet the criteria as of the section’s effective date without requiring an application and must notify those providers. The department may impose more restrictive requirements for providers serving the early childhood education and assistance program, including excluding this alternative and excluding it from calculation of Early Achievers professional development points. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families must convene a stakeholder group to identify strategies to improve early learning and school-age staff qualification requirements and verification processes, including streamlining administrative rules and defining criteria and methods to honor equivalent out-of-state education and training. The statute specifies minimum stakeholder categories (including family home and child care center providers, statewide resource and referral networks, a community-based training organization, statewide provider organizations, an out-of-school time intermediary, organizations representing refugee and immigrant communities, a bilingual provider whose first language is not English, an early learning advocacy organization, an organization representing private and independent schools, and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges). The department must report to the legislature by December 1, 2026, per RCW 43.01.036, on identified strategies and implementation plans/timelines. The stakeholder-group requirement expires July 1, 2028. Uncertainties in the provided text: the effective date of the new section is not specified here, the specific identity of “the department” used in the new section is not explicitly defined in this extract, key terms used (for example, the specific meanings of the certificate types, “electronic workforce registry,” “experience-based competency,” and “Early Achievers professional development points”) are not defined in this chunk, and the exact section placement within chapter 43.216 RCW is not given. The extract does not include any changes to penalties.

If enacted, experienced child care staff who can document in the state’s electronic workforce registry that they have continuous employment since August 1, 2021 (or seven cumulative years), are currently in a position that requires an early childhood certificate, and have completed required health, safety, and basics trainings will be allowed, through at least August 1, 2028, to use that documented experience instead of holding an early childhood education initial, short, or state certificate. The department must proactively recognize and notify staff who already meet those criteria without requiring an application, which will likely reduce the time and cost for qualifying staff and their employers to meet credential requirements and lower administrative burden for individuals already working in licensed centers or family homes. The groups most affected are licensed child care centers, licensed family home providers, and their staff: eligible workers gain a clearer, lower-cost path to meet qualification requirements, while providers must ensure required trainings and employment history are recorded in the electronic registry. Providers serving the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program could face more restrictive rules because the department may exclude experience-based competency for them and from early achievers professional development point calculations, potentially limiting benefits for those providers. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families must convene a stakeholder group and report to the legislature by December 1, 2026, with recommendations and implementation plans; the stakeholder process expires July 1, 2028. Key details that will affect who exactly benefits and how—such as the bill’s effective date, which agency “the department” refers to in the new section, and definitions for several terms—are not provided in the extracted facts.