Law and Justice / Human Services Committee - Regular Meeting

We're going to go ahead and get started. Sorry for the delay. Welcome to the Health and Community Service Snohomish County Council Health and Community Services agenda. Today is Tuesday, April 28. It's 11AM. We're meeting in the Jackson Boardroom and also remotely. Before we get into the agenda, I'll read a brief public comment script. We'll be taking public comment beginning in person and then remotely. In Zoom, click the hand icon to raise your hand. If you're calling by phone, press 9 to raise hand. When called upon, press 6 to unmute. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, and please start your comment with your name and your city of residence. And now we will do a roll call.

Committee Chair Mead? Here. Vice Chair Lo? Committee Member Nearing? Here. Committee Member Dunn? Here. Committee Member Peterson? Here. Chair, there are four members present.

Great. Thank you. And I know Council Member Lowe is on his way, so he'll be joining us I'm sure shortly. Now we'll get into public comment. First, I'll invite anyone who's in person who wants to provide comment to step to the podium. Do have any takers? All right. Seeing none, do you have any hands raised online?

No hands are raised.

Great. Thank you. So we will close public comment. We'll get into our action items. We have two motions today versus motion 20 six-one 164.

For the record, Cynthia Foley, counsel staff, the health department is seeking to enter into an agreement with Washington DOH for access to RespNet data. The data is used to provide timely rates of cases and hospitalization factors for COVID nineteen, influenza, and RSV. Data security policies are linked in section two of the contract. The motion authorizes the county executive to sign the data share sharing agreement. The request is to move motion 26 dash one six four to the GLS agenda on May 6 for council consideration.

Great. Thank you. Do you have any questions or comments from council members? Objections to consent? Alright. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move this motion to GLS May 6 for consent. Next is motion 26 dash one six five.

Motion twenty six twenty six dash one six five authorizes the executive to sign a naloxone distribution agreement with the city of Mucilteo. Under the terms of the agreement, naloxone will be provided to the city in exchange for data regarding opioid overdoses. The data is used by the county to track naloxone usage and distribute it where it is most needed. The request is to move motion 26 dash one six five to the jail agenda on May 6 for council consideration.

K. Thank you. Questions, comments from council members? Question, council member Peterson. Thank you, chair. Do we know once, Mukilteo has the naloxone what their plan is for distribution, where it'll be available to the community?

I actually didn't see that in the contract. Like, sometimes it'll say it's it's for the city's police force. Mhmm. It did say in the motion that it's for their first responders, so it is for our first responder program. So it may be that they're planning to use it broadly or flexibly. I could get more information if you'd like that. Okay.

Great. Thanks. Mhmm. Other questions from council members? Are you still alright with consent, or do you wanna move to action? Everybody alright with consent? Okay. Then we will go ahead and move this to consent on May 6, GLS agenda. So those are two action items, but we do have one discussion item. Our Snohomish County Children's Commission annual report for 2024. Do we have people here to present? Okay. Great. Welcome. You have a slideshow? Do are we managing that for you? Or okay. Great. Alright.

Hey, I am Monica Wilson, and I am the chair of the Snohomish County Children's Commission this year. I've been on the commission for four years and just starting my second term. Thanks for having us here today.

Hi, I'm Charlotte Zissell. I am District 5, and I've been on I'm a past chair. I've been on the commission for eleven years. Thank you for having us. So a brief history.

Oh, you have to scroll.

Are we good? Okay. Children's Commission was enacted via ordinance in 1985. In 2010, the Commission's role was narrowed to be focused on policy recommendations. And then in 2018, the Children's Commission resumed submitting our annual report.

Our annual report provides overall data regarding You children's can next. Okay. Our annual report provides overall data related to child, youth, and family well-being. Each year, the commission focuses on specific needs and interests of the community. In 2024, the commission focused on three areas prenatal and maternal health, early childhood education and child care, and then positive youth outcomes.

In addition, we also had presenters with lived experience come in and help inform our recommendations. The first area we're going to present to you is the prenatal and maternal health section. So prenatal and maternal health is the medical and behavioral health of pregnant people during pregnancy, during childbirth, and throughout the postnatal period. Ensuring and promoting health and well-being of pregnant people during and after pregnancy is critical to positive health outcomes for both parent and the child. Next.

We learned that eighty percent of deaths reported in the Washington State Maternal Mortality Review Panel were preventable, but behavioral health conditions were cited as the leading cause of these pregnancy related deaths. Existing prenatal and postnatal services in our area often lack nonmedical services and support, such as behavioral health, access to basic needs, and parenting education. There are several programs in our community that focus on providing prenatal and maternal health services and supports. These programs have demonstrated positive outcomes for both the parent, child, and the family. The Children's Commission recommendation is to replicate and expand these programs through direct funding and or advocacy with state and federal funding.

So our second focus is childhood education. And just a little fact there that it encompasses all areas of a child's learning and development prenatal through grade three. Early child oh, early childhood is a critical time of human development as 90% of brain development occurs before the age of five. So, what we've learned, that brain development that occurs or doesn't occur significantly impacts lifelong outcomes. Research indicates that consistent and positive exposure to early learning developmental opportunities significantly increases the likelihood of school success and positive adult outcomes.

Children not meeting kindergarten benchmarks are significantly less likely, without interventions, to achieve critical third grade benchmarks and to graduate from high school. They often experience poor life outcomes. So we found our community is fortunate to have several successful early learning programs that demonstrate positive outcomes for children and their families. The biggest challenges faced by early learning programs include a workforce shortage, livable wages, and affordable and appropriate facilities. So our ARPA funding was used to fund an initiative to support high school students and early learning providers to complete college credentials.

These initiatives help stabilize the child care workforce. Recent county amended zoning laws support increased access to early learning facility purchase and development. So our recommendations there continue to invest in the early learning workforce either directly and are advocating for state and federal initiatives advocate for full funding for early learning programs increase reimbursement rates for early learning programs ensure families can afford child care, and that funding for child care supports a viable business model.

Next, I'll talk about positive youth outcomes. So when we're talking about youth, we're thinking of school age children to age 24. The commission, or the county provides services and supports for youth sorry, services and supports for youth, promote developmental skills, abilities, and community connection to support their successful transition to adult roles and responsibilities. Last year, we focused on high school completion. The good news is that high school completion continues to increase.

Despite this positive Last trend, data indicate significantly lower rates of high school completion for certain populations of youth. In particular, youth involved in the child welfare system, experiencing housing instability, having a disability, or those whose home language is other than English. Snohomish County graduate rates are comparable to Washington State as a whole, but only seventy seven percent of low income students are graduating on time. Data from Sno Isle Tech's Skills Center showed significantly higher levels of high school completion rates for these same populations. Community services that support youth experiencing housing instability and support youth and their families to meet basic needs positively impact high school completion rates.

Intentional student reengagement and remediation have been critical to recent positive high school completion trends. Programs such as Sno Isle Tech Skills Center impact high school completion rates for student populations that typically do not experience success in the traditional high school models. Ninety seven percent of SNO IELTS Tech seniors are graduating within four years. The Children's Commission recommendation is to support funding for school based and community based services that support youth at risk of not completing high school, supportive high school completion programs, or options that are rigorous and provide an alternative to the traditional high school model. And also, our learning did show dismal education outcomes for youth involved in the child welfare system, raising a sense of urgency in finding supports for these youth.

So, we'll take a look at our focus for this year. This year, the Children's Commission is learning about prenatal and maternal health service models that incorporate behavior health and support services. We're learning about p three initiatives. These are school district initiatives to promote all children achieving grade three learning benchmarks. We hope to learn more about exiting and and needed services that support children in grades four through eight and their families.

And some of our data that we pull is from the Annie Casey Foundation. So annually, the Children's Commission reports include a county level look at data and data from the Annie Casey Foundation. A couple, Washington State, ranks fourteenth overall for child well-being. One in 10 children in Snohomish County live in poverty. Washington State ranks third in the nation for the least affordable child care. And if you're interested in seeing more of this specific data, it starts on page five of our annual report that I believe you guys have received. I'd like to thank you for having us here today. It was our pleasure.

Thank you for your presentation. Thank you for being here. And thank you for your service on the commission. Do you mind staying for questions if we have any? Do we have any questions from council members? Councilmember Nearing?

Yeah, thank you. Great presentation. Really appreciate your time and your service on the commission. Just a quick question. One of the recommendations was on state or federal advocacy, and I know part of that's funding, of course.

But I'm wondering about the criteria for, for those who are entering the workforce in this field. I serve on the board at the YMCA, and this is a similar discussion there when it comes to early learning is how difficult it is to get people there and then to retain qualified staff. And one of the things I've heard is that it's challenging when you have similar criteria for early childhood education workforce as you do for, let's say, the k 12 public education system, which pays much better. So is there any thought to advocacy probably at the state level for changing that criteria so that it's easier for people to enter the workforce and not having to compete with the general education system?

So right now, in order to be I'll just take an example. In order to be a lead teacher in early childhood education program, you need to have your state certificate. So it is a much lower it's many credits lower, but it is focused just on early childhood. You don't in order to be qualified for your role for the WACS. Some educators or some programs may require a higher education, and there are grants available. There's just not enough funding to get people that are making probably just above minimum wage through those required credits. Does that answer? Yep. Thank you.

This is Karen Matson. I'm the, manager in the human services department for early learning. Some of the feedback we've also had is, they do have to get additional credits to get a BA to then go on to the k 12 system. So it is a launching, and there are some folks who choose to do that. And the feedback we have is people feel passionate about being in early learning, and what school districts can offer is a livable wage with benefits, which is not what child care providers can pay because it doesn't allow that viable business model for them to do that. So it's probably where we're losing most of the workforce is just simply being able to to live in the community.

And when they do get their degree, they move on because that's the goal.

Other questions? Councilmember Petersen? Thank you. And again, thank you for this. Interested on the horrible outcomes for our welfare impacted families. Is there any deeper dive on those families that have an incarcerated parent? Is that any is that in the data anywhere?

I would say that came up in our discovery sessions this year, and we plan to look into it for next year's annual report.

Great. Wonderful. Thank you. Other questions? Councilman Ruddon?

Yeah. My page had a a question. Is that allowable?

Councilman Ruddon's page?

Yeah. Ellen? Do the kids themselves get excited for it? Like, who start early learning? The kids themselves who participate in the program, do they get excited for it? Or, like, is it just normal school?

If you think about a birth to five child that's going to a preschool or to a fun place, if if they're in a quality program, they are excited about going. And if you ask oftentimes if you ask a four year old child what they want to be when they grow up, they often say teacher. Thank you.

Good question. Any other questions from councilmembers or pages? Councilmember Dan?

Now I have a question.

Okay. Councilmember

chair. So we've it looks like on page 21, it looks like all of the kinda outcomes are increasing in a bad way. Right? Like, all the outcomes are, going the wrong direction. We do have a funding source with our, we we call them but the pasta dollars, but the, sound transit taxation dollars, which is, an amount of money over a number of years.

I think it's fifteen years. Might even be more if it takes longer to build sound transit. So it seems like those are dedicated dollars to addressing some of these gaps that we're seeing, which are increasing. So I think it would be helpful to have a funding recommendation to allocate those dollars maybe in a better way or to know if they're making a difference. I don't know if it's beyond the scope of the commission or Karen's work, but it would it would be good to know, like, are we making a difference with those dollars? Is is there other ways they could be invested? Like, you mentioned the Everett Community College program, but that has closed. So we can advocate for dollars, but we do have a funding source. So any comments on what we can do better with the dollars we have?

Yeah. Exactly.

The number one for me would be affordable childcare for families and livable wages for teachers. Early learning is where I live, so that is my that's my passion.

Yeah. And my passion is the positive youth outcome, so a little bit older and just really looking at supporting those youth that are involved in the child welfare system.

Also sorry, think one more thing. Looking at the federal cuts that maybe some of the the supports in our county have suffered and maybe focusing on how can we help to keep those successful programs running.

Any final questions from council members? Elizabeth Peterson? Maybe kind of a follow-up on the early childhood. Do you have an idea of how many slots were short? Slots is that weird word that they use, but how many how much more early childhood care do we need in the county?

So

I Department of Children, Youth, and Family Services puts out what's called a saturation report. They're still trying to figure out how to get the right numbers into that report because I don't think it's necessarily, fully accurate where they're pulling it from, and they they acknowledge that it's it's tough data. But looking at Head Start and ECAP in this community, which serves preschool three to five, collectively, probably serve somewhere in the 2,000 plus range, and there's probably at least that many who are eligible for services, which includes they're not eligible for working connections childcare or attending a licensed childcare. So it it takes into consideration the enrollment into the early child care. And we're still considered a child care desert in this county.

I think a lot of the state is, but our county in particular is considered child care desert. There's not enough slots, especially from the infant and toddler rooms.

And I would say, too, another gap that we found is the fourth grade through eighth grade age range. A lot of things focus on the younger children. A lot of programs focus on high school. But we had a couple of foster parents come in and and speak with us, and they're really struggling with finding supports for their children that are fourth through eighth grade. And one of the primary areas that we're deficient is in mental health counseling. So a lot of mental health therapists don't serve children. You know, they're serving mostly adults right now in our county. And so it's really hard to find really experienced mental health providers for that age range.

Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Okay. Well, Monica, Sharad, thank you and Karen, of course. Thank you for your advocacy. Thanks for the service that you provide on the commission. Thank you for the presentation and the recommendations and for being here today.

Thanks for having us.

All right. That brings us to the end of our agenda for this committee and our other committee later today has been canceled. So today, we are done for the day. We'll be in recess until tomorrow. Thank you.