Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the Best Starts for Kids Implementation Plan; and amending Ordinance 18285, Section 3, and Ordinance 18285, Section 4.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. In July 2015, Ordinance 18088 submitted to the voters of King County a proposition known as the "best starts for kids levy," authorizing a regular property tax levy in excess of the levy limitation for six consecutive years, commencing in 2016, at a rate not to exceed fourteen cents per one thousand dollars of assessed value in the first year and with an increase of up to three percent in the five succeeding years, for the purpose of funding prevention and early intervention strategies to improve the health and well-being of children, youth and their communities.
2. The six-year levy commencing in 2016 has been approved by the voters for the express purpose of paying costs as outlined in Ordinance 18088, Section 5. Except for levy proceeds designated for the youth and family homelessness prevention initiative and sums necessary to provide for the costs and charges incurred by the county that are attributable to the election, the remaining levy proceeds may only be expended as authorized in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C.
3. Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C., authorized the following expenditures from levy proceeds:
a. Fifty percent that shall be used to plan, provide and administer strategies focused on children and youth under five years old and their caregivers, pregnant women and for individuals or families concerning pregnancy. Of these moneys, not less than $42.8 million shall be used to provide health services, such as maternity support services and nurse family partnership home visiting program services;
b. Thirty-five percent that shall be used to plan, provide and administer strategies focused on children and youth ages five through twenty-four years old;
c. Ten percent that shall be used to plan, provide and administer communities of opportunity; and
d. Five percent that shall be used to plan, fund and administer the following:
(1) evaluation and data collection activities;
(2) activities designed to improve the delivery of services and programs for children and youth and their communities;
(3) services identified in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.B. provided by metropolitan park districts in King County. Of these moneys identified in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C.4.c., an amount equal to the lost revenues to the metropolitan park districts resulting from prorationing as mandated by RCW 84.52.010, up to one million dollars, that shall be provided to those metropolitan park districts if authorized by the county council by ordinance; and
(4) services identified in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.B. provided by fire districts, in an amount equal to the lost revenues to the fire districts in King County resulting from prorationing, as mandated by RCW 84.52.010, for those services, to the extent the prorationing was caused solely by the best starts for kids levy and if authorized by the county council by ordinance.
4. Ordinance 18088 also directs that by June 1, 2016, the executive transmit to the council for review and approval an implementation plan that identifies the strategies to be funded and outcomes to be achieved with the use of levy proceeds described in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C. Ordinance 18088 required this plan to be developed in collaboration with the oversight and advisory board and the communities of opportunity interim governance group, as applicable. Ordinance 18088 also required that, to the maximum extent possible, this implementation plan take into consideration the county's youth action plan, adopted by Motion 14378, and any recommendations of the county's steering committee to address juvenile justice disproportionality that was formed in 20l5 that are adopted into policy.
5. An oversight and advisory board was established by ordinance as directed by Ordinance 18088 to serve as the oversight and advisory board for the portion of levy proceeds described in Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C.1., 2. and 4. The oversight and advisory board, referred to in this statement of facts as the children and youth advisory board, under the guidance of the department of community and human services, met six times in order to provide input on the development of the best starts for kids prenatal to twenty-four portions of the implementation plan.
6. Ordinance 18088 also directed that applicable portions of the implementation plan be developed in collaboration with the communities of opportunity interim governance group. The communities of opportunity interim governance group met eleven times from January through May 2016 to provide input on the development of the communities of opportunity portion of the implementation plan.
7. In addition to the input of the children and youth advisory board, the executive convened sixteen community conversations throughout the county to help shape the plan, gathering input from almost one thousand community members.
8. The executive also convened a science and research panel composed of twenty local and national science and practice experts. The panel provided review of components of the implementation plan related to strategies aimed at children and youth birth to twenty-four years old to ensure there is alignment with the latest research and scientific evidence.
9. Input was sought from local municipalities including through the Sound Cities Association Best Starts for Kids Roundtable and meetings with the city of Seattle.
10. Approximately twenty-five thousand children are born in King County every year. County residents under age eighteen comprise twenty-one percent of the county's population. Nearly half of people under age eighteen in King County are people of color.
11. According to the Center for the Developing Child, eighty-five percent of the human brain is developed by age three and the basic skills necessary to be ready to learn in school and be successful as an adult are developed by age five before children go to school.
12. A second significant time of brain development is adolescence. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the parts of the brain responsible for controlling impulses and planning ahead, which are the hallmarks of successful adult behavior, mature during adolescence. Adolescence is also the critical period when young people learn to form safe and healthy relationships, and when many patterns of health promoting or potentially health-damaging behaviors are established.
13. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adverse childhood experiences can have a tremendous impact on lifelong health and opportunity, can impact healthy brain development, and have been linked to risky behaviors, mental health and physical health problems, increasing the odds of experiencing homelessness as an adult and contributing to a shorter life expectancy.
14. Researchers at the Center for the Study of Social Policy have combined research on stress and the impact of adverse childhood experiences on brain development with research on positive child and youth development, resilience and neuroscience to identify protective and promotive factors for children, families and youth that increase the likelihood that children and youth can develop into healthy, thriving adults. The implementation plan incorporates much of this research on protective and promotive factors in its strategies.
15. King County's work is informed by research on adverse childhood experiences in a number of ways including working with community partners to develop specific, strategic activities focused on mitigating the impacts of trauma and adversity. These strategies include incorporating the concepts of toxic stress, trauma-informed care and resiliency in its work.
16. Disparities in health and well-being exist within King County. According to U.S. Census data, the percentage of children five and under living in poverty is as low as six percent in some regions of the county and as high as twenty-six percent in other regions. According to the Washington State Department of Health, infant mortality is four times higher in some areas of King County than others and approximately one-third of pregnant women do not receive the recommended levels of prenatal care. Data from the Washington State Healthy Youth Survey show that one in five adolescents is overweight or obese. The same survey data shows that twenty-nine percent of adolescents report having depressive feelings and twenty-five percent report using alcohol or other illicit drugs.
17. One of the areas where disparities exist in those who do not receive appropriate services before a crisis occurs is in the juvenile justice system. The King County office of performance, strategy and budget's juvenile justice statistics report shows that in the first quarter of 2016, 85.7 percent of the young people in secured detention were young people of color, with fifty-nine percent being African American young people. King County has applied significant effort in recent years to improving juvenile justice data collection and tracking, which has informed the development and implementation of new policies and programs such as the Family Intervention and Restorative Services program for diverting youth arrested for domestic violence, and is committed to ending disproportionality in the juvenile justice system. King County has lowered the juvenile secure detention average daily population from one hundred eighty-seven in 1998 to fifty-seven in July 2016 (year-to-date average).
18. The majority of levy proceeds from the voter-approved best starts for kids levy is intended to go to community partners to provide services in the community. As the plan is implemented, one of the county's goals is to ensure that diverse communities and small organizations, including those that are using emerging and innovative approaches to provide services, are able to access moneys in order to provide culturally appropriate services in King County. The county intends to collaborate with these organizations and help evaluate innovative new programs and services to demonstrate their effectiveness.
19. Communities of Opportunity is addressing inequities in health, social racial and economic outcomes across the region so that communities with the most to gain can thrive. Communities of Opportunity has been in existence since 2014. The best starts for kids investments will strengthen Community of Opportunity's interlocking elements:
a. places: awards to community partnerships, both place-based and cultural, to close the gap in equity outcomes across different communities in King County;
b. institutional, policy and systems change: investments to reform the institutions, systems and policies that create and perpetuate inequities in specific places and throughout the entire region; and
c. learning community: creating spaces, both actual and virtual, for communities and organizations to share the work they have undertaken, fostering collaboration and building momentum toward shared results at the regional level.
20. In 2010, the King County council adopted Ordinance 16948, transforming its work on equity and social justice from an initiative to an integrated effort that intentionally applies the King County Strategic Plan's "fair and just" principle to county actions and integrates equity and social justice practices to eliminate inequities and create opportunities for all people and communities. The services identified in the implementation plan are intended to meet the goals of the 2016 King County's Equity and Social Justice Plan.
21. ln 2013, the council adopted Motion 13943, accepting the Health and Human Services Transformation Plan. The transformation plan establishes the county's goal that, by 2020, the people of King County will experience significant gains in health and well-being because our community worked collectively to make the shift from a costly, crisis-oriented response to health and social problems, to one that focuses on prevention, embraces recovery and eliminates disparities. King County's work also focuses on maintaining healthy communities. The implementation plan aims to be consistent with that vision.
22. In 2014, the county enacted Ordinance 17738, establishing the youth action plan task force and providing policy direction regarding the development of a youth action plan. The implementation plan is generally aligned with the youth action plan's recommendations.
23. To develop the plan for eligible expenditures of levy proceeds authorized by Ordinance 18088, Section 5.C.4.c., the county worked with metropolitan parks districts that had their property tax levy reduced in 2016 due to prorationing under RCW 84.52.010 to identify eligible programs or services that could be funded with levy proceeds. Those programs and services eligible for funding with the best starts for kids levy proceeds have been incorporated into the implementation plan.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The Best Starts for Kids Implementation Plan, Attachment A to this ordinance, is hereby approved. The plan may be amended by ordinance.
SECTION 2. A. The executive shall develop and transmit the reports and plans required in Attachment A to this ordinance in the manner and by the deadlines set forth in Attachment A to this ordinance.
B. Any report or plan required by this ordinance shall be filed in the form of a paper original and an electronic copy with the clerk of the council, who shall retain the original and provide an electronic copy to all councilmembers and all members and alternate members of the regional policy committee, or its successor.
SECTION 3. Ordinance 18285, Section 3, is hereby amended to read as follows:
((One year from the effective date of this ordinance)) By May 27, 2017, the executive shall submit to the metropolitan King County council a report describing the people served and outcomes of the youth and family homelessness prevention initiative. No additional reporting is required in 2017. By June 1, 2018, the executive shall transmit a program outcomes report for the youth and family homelessness prevention initiative independent of any report for the entire best starts for kids levy ordinance. Thereafter, by June 1 of each year, through June 1, 2022, the executive shall include reporting for the youth and family homelessness prevention initiative in any annual report for the entire best starts for kids levy ordinance. Any report required by this section shall be filed in the form of a paper original and an electronic copy with the clerk of the council, who shall retain the original and provide an electronic copy to all councilmembers.
SECTION 4. Ordinance 18285, Section 2 is hereby amended to read as follows:
The family and youth homelessness prevention initiative implementation plan, updated September 19, 2016, Attachment ((A to Ordinance 18285)) B to this ordinance, is hereby approved.