Senate Bill 5788 (69th Legislature, 2025 Regular Session) amends multiple existing Washington statutes, reenacts and amends RCW 43.216.802 (working connections child care), amends RCW 43.216.556 (early learning program funding) and RCW 74.62.030 (aged, blind, or disabled and pregnant women assistance), and repeals specified statutes and session law sections. The act takes effect July 1, 2025 and contains an emergency clause whose full text is not shown in the provided material. Substantive changes include directing “the department” to receive appropriations and distribute early learning program funding to approved contractors and to collaborate with school districts, community providers, and educational service districts to promote provider supply; reenacting the working connections child care provisions to set eligibility at or below 60% of the state median income (adjusted for family size) with specified age and special needs/court supervision criteria, requiring rulemaking (including an income phase-out period), prohibiting consideration of a child’s citizenship status for eligibility, and requiring that beginning November 1, 2024 the department treat households receiving basic food/SNAP as meeting the income eligibility requirement. Changes to aged, blind, or disabled assistance and pregnant women assistance clarify definitions for “aged,” “blind,” and “disabled,” set eligibility criteria including citizenship/immigration status rules and Social Security number requirements (with an exception for human trafficking victims), require referrals to assessment/treatment/shelter for applicants primarily unable to work due to substance use disorder, bar benefits for months when a person is fleeing to avoid prosecution or violating supervision for certain offenses, allow concurrent receipt of state assistance while an SSI application is pending, require the department to share client data with the department of commerce and designated entities for essential needs and housing support, and treat any state assistance later duplicated by SSI for the same period as a debt to the state subject to recovery. The bill also repeals RCW 43.216.828 and RCW 74.08A.035 and certain related session law sections. The provided text does not name which agency is referenced as “the department,” and portions of the bill appear to show deletions or bracketed edits; the emergency clause and any additional effective date details are incomplete in the extracted material.

If enacted, the bill would change who gets and how child care and early learning money is sent: the state department must receive appropriations and pay approved early childhood contractors based on eligible children enrolled, and school districts and community providers can contract to deliver those services while the department works to expand approved providers. For working families, anyone in a household that is part of a unit eligible for or receiving basic food (SNAP) will be treated as meeting the program’s household income test, and the department must write rules including an income phase-out and cannot base eligibility on a child’s citizenship; this likely increases the number of families who qualify for child care support and shifts administrative work and rulemaking to the department. The effective date in the bill is July 1, 2025, though one provision takes effect November 1, 2024, which creates some timing uncertainty. People applying for aged, blind, or disabled assistance or pregnant women assistance face clearer definitions and new procedural duties: applicants generally must provide or apply for a Social Security number before benefits are authorized (with a trafficking victim exception), recipients can get essential needs and housing help while an SSI claim is pending but any payments later duplicated by SSI will be treated as a debt the state can recover, and certain people (for example those fleeing felony prosecution) are ineligible. The department will be required to share client data with the department of commerce and housing support entities. The bill also repeals earlier rules about using a cost model for child care subsidy rates and some 2024 provisions, which could change rate-setting and eligibility practice, but the text available does not provide the detailed replacements or the identity of the named department, so some operational details remain unclear.