Committee hears broad changes to childcare and early-learning programs, including delays to ECAP entitlement and Working Connections expansions

Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 57-52 would make multiple changes to early-learning and childcare programs. Major provisions discussed in committee testimony include a four-year delay to the ECAP entitlement expansion, an earlier effective date for some eligibility increases, delays to Working Connections eligibility expansions, changes to co-pay schedules, and moving several provider supports to be subject to appropriation.

Omera Harrington, staff counsel, summarized ECAP (the state's no-cost preschool and family-services program) and described three ECAP-related changes in the bill: (1) delay the date ECAP becomes an entitlement for eligible children by four years to the 2030-31 school year; (2) move some eligibility increases (including a 36% SMI threshold) to take effect on 07/01/2025 rather than 07/01/2026; and (3) remove a provision that allowed some children eligible for basic food benefits to enroll in ECAP prior to entitlement.

Harrington also summarized Working Connections Child Care changes: income eligibility expansions are delayed by four years; co-pay schedules are modified in October 2025 and again in October 2026 (including temporarily raising co-pays for some brackets and later waiving co-pays for households below 25% SMI while changing the calculation method for others); eligibility for registered apprentices and childcare employees is repealed; and DCYF is required to adopt rules for prospective payments to providers rather than retroactive reimbursement. The bill also makes certain provider supports—trauma-informed care assistance, dual-language subsidy enhancements, and infant/early-childhood mental-health consultation—subject to appropriation and requires DCYF to publish a cost-of-quality/biennial market-rate study by June 1 of even-numbered years.

Public testimony included program operators, early-learning advocates, childcare employers, apprenticeship and building-trades representatives, Child Care Aware of Washington, Head Start/ECAP associations, and administrators who warned of workforce instability if the expanded eligibility and co-pay changes proceed. Testimony highlighted that expanded eligibility for childcare workers and registered apprentices helped retain and recruit staff; providers said the proposal to repeal that expansion and increase co-pays risks losing teachers, reducing capacity, and undermining quality. Advocates also urged preservation of infant and early-childhood mental-health consultation and other provider supports, describing cases in which mental-health consultants helped children make measurable progress.

Several providers and employers described concrete worker impacts: DCYF data cited by testifiers showed hundreds of childcare-worker cases currently using expanded eligibility and projected increases in co-pays affecting thousands of families; individual providers said losing worker eligibility would force experienced staff out of the field and reduce classroom capacity. Building trades representatives urged continued temporary subsidy access for apprentices to avoid pushing them back onto public assistance during apprenticeship entry years.

Committee members asked staff to clarify fiscal impacts and noted differences between the senate and house budgets; staff said final fiscal notes were pending for the senate substitute version and offered to follow up with detailed fiscal comparisons. The committee closed public testimony and did not take an immediate vote.