Committee hears Best Starts for Kids 2024 report showing $137M investment and program-level dashboards

The Regional Policy Committee received a briefing on the Best Starts for Kids (BSK) 2024 annual report, which documents levy investments, program activity and evaluation links for the 2024 calendar year. Miranda Leskinen, King County Council staff, summarized the report and told committee members the report meets levy reporting requirements and points to an online dashboard for initiative-level details.

Miranda Leskinen, staff for the Regional Policy Committee, said BSK invested more than $137,000,000 in 2024, partnering with 365 community-based organizations to operate 609 programs and directly serve approximately 170,000 individuals across King County. Leskinen walked committee members through where to find summary tables and geographic distribution maps in the packet and the online dashboard, and noted that appendix E and the dashboard include zip-code-level data and published evaluation reports.

Leskinen emphasized the annual report’s links to published third-party evaluation results and said the report is the third annual report for the 2022–27 levy period; levy reports are due each year no later than July 15 covering the prior calendar year. The staff memo and presentation also highlight a suite of performance measures and evaluation findings from 2024, and the staff recommendation in the packet is a proposed motion to acknowledge receipt of the report (the motion is routed through the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee before returning to the RPC for action).

Deputy Mayor Arnold asked whether, given recent county audit findings about contract performance, the committee could be briefed on audit follow-up and planned responses. Leskinen replied that scheduling such a briefing is within the chair’s purview and could be added to a future RPC meeting without amending the committee work plan. Kelly Ryder, DCHS Director, also participated in the meeting and said the executive will continue to provide implementation materials and dashboards to support oversight.

Why this matters: BSK is a county levy funding early-childhood, youth, family and community programs; the 2024 report provides a fiscal and program snapshot and points policymakers and the public to evaluation reports and an interactive dashboard to examine initiative-level outcomes and distributions.

Discussion versus decision: this meeting was a briefing; the committee did not take final action on the motion to acknowledge receipt. Staff analysis stated the 2024 report meets the levy ordinance and implementation-plan reporting requirements; the proposed motion will proceed through the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee before RPC action.

(Ending) Committee members were directed to the BSK online dashboard and appendix materials for detailed, zip-code-level and initiative-level data; members may request a future briefing focused on audit follow-up and contract performance.