The bill adds a new section to chapter 71A.12 RCW creating a conditional new authority for the Developmental Disabilities Administration (referred to in the text as "the administration") to pay parents who provide certain personal care services to their minor children with developmental disabilities. It requires the administration to request amendments to applicable DDA home and community-based services waivers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by January 31, 2026; if CMS approves the amendments, the administration must then authorize payments to parents who provide care that meets the statute’s definition of "extraordinary care." The statute also allows the administration to adopt rules to assess and authorize personal care hours for minors with compensated parental caregivers and to comply with CMS requirements related to payments to legally responsible individuals. The bill creates a procedural change and a new payment authorization (contingent on federal waiver approval) rather than immediately creating a standalone entitlement. It permits parental caregivers the option to be employed as individual providers under RCW 74.39A.240, subject to the same training and oversight requirements applied to other parent individual providers. It specifies that personal care service hours provided by parent providers may be offered only as a waiver service, while assessed personal care hours provided by non-parent providers must remain under the Community First Choice option. The bill defines key terms for this new section: "extraordinary care" (care for a minor assessed in certain high-need categories that exceeds what a legally responsible person would ordinarily perform and is necessary to assure health, welfare, and avoid institutionalization), "minor child" (a person under age 18 who is a client of the administration), and "parent" (natural parent, adoptive parent, stepparent, or legal guardian). The document labels Sec. 1 as findings and Sec. 2 with subsections (1)–(5). Important details are not provided in the extracted text, including the specific DDA waiver(s) to be amended, the agency’s formal name, the definitions of the referenced assessment classifications, payment rates, implementation timelines after CMS approval, rule specifics, training and oversight standards, and fiscal impacts.

If enacted and if federal approval is granted, parents, step‑parents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians who provide unusually intensive personal care to minor children served by the Developmental Disabilities Administration could be paid for that care and could choose to be hired as individual providers subject to the same training and oversight as other parent providers. That would give families of minors assessed in the highest need categories a likely new income and employment option aimed at keeping children at home rather than institutionalized, while non‑parent caregivers would continue to be paid under the existing Community First Choice program. The state administration will need to submit a waiver amendment to CMS by January 31, 2026 and, if approved, must create rules to assess and authorize hours and to comply with CMS requirements, which means new administrative work, training and oversight costs, and a shift in how certain personal care hours are funded (waiver dollars for parent providers). Important details that affect families and budgets — which specific DDA waivers will be changed, payment levels, exact timelines after CMS approval, and full definitions of the high‑need assessment categories — are not specified here, so outcomes and fiscal impacts remain uncertain.