This bill amends RCW 28B.10.660 to authorize governing boards of state institutions of higher education to make various types of insurance available for regents, trustees, students, and others. The types of insurance enumerated include liability, life, health, health care, accident, disability, salary protection, and other insurance. Governing boards may require students participating in institution-sponsored, arranged, or approved study or research outside the United States to purchase board-approved insurance covering emergency evacuation, repatriation of remains, injury, illness, or death sustained during the activity; the board may pay all or part of those insurance costs, and a student is not required to purchase the insurance if already covered by a policy providing the specified coverage. The amendment specifies that, except as provided in subsections (2), (3), and (4), premiums for such protection are to be borne by the assenting regents, trustees, or students. Regents or trustees may make liability insurance available for institution employees, with those premiums to be paid by the university or college. A governing board of a public four-year institution may make available and pay the costs of health benefits for graduate students holding graduate service appointments, including coverage for spouses and dependents, and may make available and pay insurance for intercollegiate student athletes and certain former student athletes who are entitled under institutional athletic association rules to a period of posteligibility health care for athletics-related injuries and conditions. The text provided appears to be the amendment language only. It contains an editorial markup around the subsection references that makes the precise intent unclear. No effective date, broader statutory definitions, or additional sections are included in the extracted facts, and it is not clear whether this is the complete bill.

If enacted, governing boards at Washington public colleges and universities would have clearer authority to offer a range of insurance options and to decide who pays: individual regents, trustees, or students would generally pay premiums for voluntary coverage they accept, while the institutions would pay premiums for liability insurance for employees. Public four-year institutions could choose to provide and pay health benefits for graduate students with service appointments (and their spouses/dependents), require and possibly subsidize emergency evacuation/repatriation and medical insurance for students studying or researching abroad, and provide and pay insurance for current intercollegiate athletes and certain former athletes entitled to posteligibility athletic health care. The groups most affected are governing boards (new discretion and potential budgeting decisions), public four-year institutions (possible new payroll/benefit costs for employee liability, graduate student health benefits, and athlete coverage), graduate students and their families (new access to institution-paid benefits in some cases), students going abroad (may have to buy specific insurance unless already covered), and student athletes (expanded institutional coverage). Important details are missing or unclear here: there is no effective date stated, the text has an unclear parenthetical editing mark that could change who pays in some cases, and terms like “graduate service appointments” and “posteligibility health care” are not defined in this extract, so the scope and timing of costs and responsibilities could vary depending on provisions elsewhere.