We began this week at the Legislature by celebrating Children’s Day, a yearly tradition in the House of Representatives that usually coincides with the Presidents’ Day holiday.

With many children out of school for the holiday, we invite them to join us as we celebrate our youngest citizens, and the hopes and dreams they symbolize for a better future. That’s hard to forget when I’m holding my beautiful granddaughter Evie.

If you would like to see photos from Children’s Day, check out the House Democrats blog and our Facebook page.

Youth Opportunities Act

On Friday, my committee took action to move a very important bill forward in the legislative process. The “Youth Opportunities Act” (House Bill 1651) would seal juvenile records and prevent private individuals or entities from selling and purchasing these records.

It is unconscionable that Washington State sells the arrest and conviction records of juveniles.

We are one of only eight states that allow this information to be publicly disseminated, making juvenile records widely available online. As a result, young people continue to pay for their childhood mistakes well into adulthood. We’ve learned from breakthroughs in brain development research that youth are less capable than adults of assessing risks, controlling impulsive behavior, and engaging in moral reasoning. When we saddle our young people with a criminal record and identity, we create barriers to education, gainful employment, and housing, making it hard for them to succeed as adults. This practice disproportionally impacts minority youth, who already face discrimination within and outside of the criminal justice system.

This is not fair and it is not just.

The Youth Opportunities Act makes juvenile records confidential and unavailable to the general public, except in the case of sexual or serious violent offenses. Courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement maintain access to all records, but the courts can no longer profit by selling these records to credit reporting agencies. This is an important step in ensuring that all youth have the opportunities they deserve.

Giving Kids the Best Start

Our state is a nationally recognized early learning leader.  We understand the critical importance of a child’s earliest years in terms of early brain development and later success in school and life. Research shows that 85 percent of brain development occurs by age three, and 92 percent by age five. When a child enters Kindergarten, the vast majority of brain development has already taken place.

This means the earlier we focus our early learning efforts, the better. In fact, why not start at birth?

That’s why I introduced House Bill 1723, which was voted out of the Early Learning and Human Services Committee this week. The goal is to help parents and caregivers give children the best possible start in life, and ensure each child is ready to learn by the time he or she enters Kindergarten. Called the “Early Start” proposal, the bill would:

• Build a high quality birth-to-five continuum of services over time.
• Carefully target resources on strategies that yield high results and give us the best bang for our buck.
• Blend our already-existing programs – including parent education, the Early Child Education Program and the Working Connections Child Care program – to provide high-quality, all-day early learning opportunities for low-income children, and improve the quality of care for all children.
• Include an expansion of home visiting services for parents facing serious challenges, to help them get their children off to the best possible start. Home visiting programs have been shown to cut incidences of child abuse and neglect in half.

A related, complementary bill would strengthen the Working Connections Child Care program, which helps low-income parents who are working or going to school afford child care. House Bill 1671 would also help improve access to early learning programs offered by many childcare providers, and was also voted out of my committee this week.

Affordable Higher Education

Earlier this week, I met with a group of students who are Health and Human Service majors. It is wonderful to meet young people who are dedicated to improving the lives of Washingtonians.

Providing students with opportunities and skills they need to compete for good jobs is one of the priorities of the House Democrats this session. Our kids deserve the same chances to succeed that previous generations had.

Last Friday we passed House Bill 1043 which would end differential tuition authorities for universities, but more importantly, would save the Guaranteed Education Tuition program. GET is a valuable tool to help middle class families save for college.