This bill requires new oversight and reporting on safety and placement stability for people with developmental disabilities served in Washington’s mixed-delivery residential system. It directs the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) to review and compare safety and stability outcomes across three types of settings—residential habilitation centers, state-operated living alternatives, and contracted community-based residential settings—using data from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2026. JLARC must aggregate specified per-calendar-year measures for clients DSHS assesses as having high behavioral acuity, high medical acuity, or both, and produce a report to the legislature by December 1, 2027, including a recommended methodology for ongoing data collection and standardization. The bill also adds a new section to chapter 71A.12 RCW requiring the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to produce and publish annually a report comparing emergency service use and placement stability between contracted residential settings and state-operated residential settings for DSHS clients with developmental disabilities. DSHS must organize the data consistent with JLARC’s recommended methodology. The first DSHS report is due September 1, 2028, covering data beginning January 1, 2027, and must be updated by September 1 each year thereafter. This is a procedural change creating new audit and reporting duties for JLARC and DSHS and adding a new statutory reporting requirement; it does not create new crimes or change penalties. The text provided does not define how “high behavioral acuity level” or “high medical acuity level” are determined beyond referencing the DSHS developmental disabilities assessment, does not specify how “staff retention rates” should be measured, and does not fully define “other similar settings” among contracted community-based residential settings.

If enacted, the law will make standardized, comparable information about emergency service use and placement stability for people with developmental disabilities publicly available and routinely reported to the legislature. That means outcome measures—like crisis-related 911 calls, emergency room holds when providers won’t accept someone for behavioral or safety reasons, placement terminations that lead to state custody, incarceration, or homelessness, counts and share of clients judged to have high behavioral or medical acuity, and staff retention comparisons—will be compiled, analyzed, and published so lawmakers, families, and the public can see how state-run facilities and contracted community providers compare. The most affected parties are DSHS (new annual reporting and publication duties likely increasing administrative work and costs), JLARC (a required review and a December 1, 2027 report with a recommended ongoing methodology), and residential providers—both state-operated and contracted—whose outcomes will be measured and publicly compared, creating greater oversight and reputational risk that could influence contracting or policy decisions. Important details are still unclear from the text: how “high behavioral” and “high medical” acuity are defined, how staff retention will be measured, and what exactly falls under “other similar settings”; JLARC’s forthcoming methodology will determine many practical implementation specifics.