This bill amends existing Washington law (RCW 18.88B.041 and RCW 74.39A.076) to change who must be certified as a home care aide and to set specific training timelines and procedures. It lists categories of long-term care workers who are not required to become certified home care aides, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants and approved CNA trainees, Medicare‑certified home health aides, persons with certain special education endorsements when the secretary so determines, people hired before January 7, 2012 who met training then in effect, workers employed by community residential service businesses, relatives (including by marriage or domestic partnership) providing in‑home care for specified family members, spouses or registered domestic partners providing care only for their spouse/partner, workers who provide 20 hours or less of non‑respite care for one person in any calendar month, and workers who provide only respite services and work less than 300 hours in a calendar year. Individuals exempted from certification under these provisions may still obtain certification by passing the certification examination referenced in RCW 18.88B.031 without completing the training requirement in RCW 74.39A.074(1)(d)(ii). The bill also prescribes training hour requirements and deadlines for certain long‑term care workers: a parent providing in‑home care only for a developmentally disabled child must complete 12 hours of training within 120 days of hire; a spouse or registered domestic partner providing care only for a spouse/partner must complete 15 hours of basic training plus at least 6 hours of focused training within 120 days; a respite worker who works 300 hours or less per year must complete 14 hours (with five hours, including two hours orientation and three hours safety, before eligibility) within 120 days and the training partnership identified in RCW 74.39A.360 must offer at least 12 of the 14 hours online with elective options; other specified in‑home care workers must complete 35 hours within 120 days with five hours required before eligibility. Only department‑approved curricula may be used, curricula must involve consumer and worker input and qualified instructors, and the department must adopt rules to implement these provisions. If a declared emergency affects training, the department may extend completion time through adoptive rules, must repeal such rules when no longer necessary under RCW 34.05.353, and must review compliance and report to the legislature within 12 months after the emergency ends. Legally, this is a modification of existing statutory requirements and procedures governing certification exemptions, training content and timelines, and agency rulemaking and emergency flexibility; it does not create a new crime or change criminal penalties. The provided text does not define which specific "department" or the formal title of the "secretary" referenced, and some parenthetical edits and cross‑references to other RCW sections are shown but the chunk does not make clear how those edits affect the final statutory structure; the full text of the referenced RCWs is not included here.

If enacted, the law would make clear which in-home long-term care workers do not have to become certified home care aides and would set short, specific training obligations for family and low-hour caregivers and for limited-hours respite providers. Many licensed clinicians (RNs, LPNs), CNAs, Medicare home health aides, certain special education staff, community residential service employees, relatives caring for only certain family members, spouses/registered domestic partners, providers working 20 hours or less per month for one person, and respite workers under 300 hours a year would remain exempt from full certification; exempt workers could still get certified by passing the state exam without doing the more extensive training. Designated family caregivers and limited-hours workers would typically need to complete modest training within 120 days (for example, 12 hours for a parent of a developmentally disabled child, about 21 hours for a spouse/partner, 14 hours for certain respite workers with five pre-eligibility hours, and 35 hours for some other relatives), and the department-approved curriculum must include consumer and worker input and require qualified instructors, with online options for much of the respite training. The Department of Social and Health Services would face new implementation responsibilities and modest ongoing costs to adopt rules, approve curriculum and training providers, allow emergency extensions when necessary, and report on compliance to the legislature, which could increase administrative workload and oversight activity. For individual caregivers the practical effects are mostly time and access related: most will avoid full certification costs but will likely need to complete the specified short trainings within the timeline or seek the exam if they want certification; the text does not clearly identify which specific agency office is the “department” or “secretary,” nor does it resolve how removed or altered prior provisions interact with these changes, so some implementation details remain uncertain.