This bill directs the state Developmental Disabilities Administration to seek amendments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to allow payment to parents who provide "extraordinary care" to their minor children who are clients of the administration, contingent on CMS approval. The administration must submit the waiver amendment requests by January 31, 2026, and thereafter as needed; if CMS approves, the administration may authorize payments to parents. The bill authorizes the administration to adopt rules for assessing and authorizing personal care hours for minors with compensated parental caregivers and other rules necessary to meet CMS requirements. The proposal creates a new, conditional payment authorization and related procedural changes rather than a criminal or penalty change. It allows parent caregivers the option to be employed as individual providers (as defined in RCW 74.39A.240) and subjects them to the same training and oversight requirements as other individual providers who are parents. Personal care service hours provided by parent providers would be available only as a waiver service, while assessed personal care hours provided by non-parent providers would remain under the community first choice option. The bill adds sections to chapter 71A.12 RCW and contains timing limits: section 2 expires July 1, 2031; section 3 takes effect July 1, 2031; and section 4 expires July 1, 2032. Important details are unclear in the extracted text: the RCW citation appears incomplete, the bill alternately uses the terms "administration" and "department" without clear identification, and there is a conflict in the text about the definition of "extraordinary care"—one version ties it to specific assessment categories while an amended version shows that assessment clause deleted. The term "comprehensive assessment and reporting evaluation" is referenced but not defined in the provided material.

If federal approval is obtained, parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians of minors who are DDA clients could be paid for providing "extraordinary care" to their children, and they would be allowed to be employed as individual providers subject to the same training and oversight as other parent providers. This would likely increase options for families to receive compensation for intensive care that prevents institutionalization, shift some provider payments from nonparent workers to family caregivers when the waiver is used, and require the administration to adopt rules for assessing and authorizing hours for minors with compensated parental caregivers. The administration and department must request the necessary CMS waiver amendments by January 31, 2026, and pursue further amendments as needed; payments only take effect if CMS approves those amendments. Real costs and who qualifies depend on CMS approval and on the final definition of "extraordinary care," which is unclear in the extracted text (the bill includes two versions of that definition), so exact eligibility and budget impacts are uncertain. Sections authorizing these changes have sunset or effective dates in 2031–2032, and personal care hours for nonminor or non-DDA clients through the community first choice option are not affected.