This bill amends existing law (it modifies RCW 28B.92.030 and reenacts and amends RCW 28B.118.010) to change how the Washington college grant and the Washington college bound scholarship are calculated and administered. It revises the “maximum Washington college grant” amounts for multiple types of institutions (public twoand four-year, private twoand four-year not-for‑profit and for‑profit, Western Governors University–Washington, and approved apprenticeship programs), sets baseline amounts for 2019‑20 for several private and WGU categories, limits annual increases through 2025‑26 by a defined “tuition growth factor,” and changes the methods for determining some awards beginning in later academic years (including new averaging rules for certain private four‑year awards and changes to apprenticeship and WGU amounts). The bill also modifies the college bound scholarship program by requiring the Office of Student Financial Assistance to design the program aligned with the Washington college grant, prescribing automatic enrollment of eligible students with notification requirements, and setting income, residency, dependency/adoption, academic, and enrollment deadline conditions for eligibility. The bill makes several procedural and property-rule changes: institutions must award students all need‑ and merit‑based aid for which the student would otherwise qualify; the college bound scholarship is prioritized to replace unmet need, loans, and (at the student’s option) work‑study before reducing other grants or scholarships; eligible students have a property right in awards but the state retains legal ownership of scholarship “tuition units” until redeemed and those units must be held separately from other tuition units under chapter 28B.95 RCW. Scholarship use is time‑limited (awards must be used within six years and eligibility may not extend beyond six years or 150 percent of program length), unused or unredeemed tuition units revert to the scholarship account, and if a recipient terminates enrollment during an academic year unused portions revert to the account. For students attending public two‑ or four‑year institutions, the college bound scholarship award is specified as the difference between tuition/required fees and state‑funded grant/scholarship/waiver assistance plus $500 for books and materials. The bill also requires the superintendent of public instruction and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to provide lists of eligible students to the office when requested, and requires certain resident students to provide an affidavit of intent to apply for permanent residency and willingness to pursue citizenship‑related activities. Some details are unclear or incomplete in the extracted text. There is conflicting or overlapping information about the Western Governors University–Washington award (chunked provisions list a 2019‑20 baseline and a 2026‑27 amount of $4,150 in one place and a 2027‑28 amount of $4,650 in another), and the extract ends mid‑provision in places and omits some rulemaking or definitional language referenced elsewhere. Other referenced rule determinations, the full text of certain eligibility subsections, and the exact final statutory phrasing where parenthetical deletions appear are not present in the provided facts.

If enacted, low‑income Washington students would see how much state grant aid they can get change by the type of school they attend, with some private college awards phased to track averages at public colleges and apprenticeship support cut about in half after 2026–27. Western Governors University‑Washington’s scholarship amount is set to a specific level beginning 2027–28, and for students at public two‑ and four‑year schools the scholarship will generally cover the gap between tuition/required fees and other state aid plus $500 for books. The office that runs student aid will automatically enroll eligible students, pull lists from schools and child welfare, notify families, and require students to meet enrollment, grade, residency and income limits (family income capped at 65 percent of state median at graduation); awards must be used within six years and unused portions revert to the scholarship account. The biggest real‑world impacts fall on low‑income students, apprenticeship participants, and colleges. Students could gain clearer protections against loan or work‑study requirements because the scholarship is intended to replace unmet need and loans first, but some students (including certain resident noncitizens) will face new affidavit and enrollment deadlines or risk losing tuition units if they don’t use them within six years. Colleges and state agencies will have new administrative duties to award other aid, honor the scholarship rules, and coordinate automatic enrollment and reporting, and private colleges may see state grant revenue amounts shift as formulas change. Some details about exact award calculations and distinctions between types of public institutions are missing from the provided text, so the precise dollar impact for some students and schools is unclear.