Drafter
Clerk 07/25/2019
Title
A MOTION establishing a King County children and families strategy task force to explore policy recommendations related to child care affordability and access in King County
Body
WHEREAS, in 2017, the King County women's advisory board adopted the topic of improving child care access and affordability in King County identifying lack of access to child care as a stark problem that not only affects King County's families, but also its employers and economy, and
WHEREAS, King County has been a leader in partnering with families to ensure babies, children and their families are healthy, thriving and able to establish a strong foundation for life, and
WHEREAS, the Washington state legislature has established the Washington Child Care Collaborative Task Force to develop policies and recommendations to incentivize employer-supported child care and improve child care access and affordability for employees and King County will be a nonvoting member of the Washington State Child Care Collaborative task force to better inform our policies, and
WHEREAS, King County has an institutional commitment to advancing equity and social justice for county employees and the residents who call this place home. With that, there are racial inequities in access to quality child care that meets the cultural and linguistic needs of our residents and enables parents to work. At the same time, child care workers are disproportionately people of color and are often paid low wages, and
WHEREAS, under the leadership of Executive Dow Constantine, King County developed and implemented the best starts for kids levy that was approved by King County voters in 2015. Best starts for kids is considered the most comprehensive approach to child development in the nation. Best starts for kids invests an average of $65 million per year to support King County families and children so that babies are born healthy, children thrive and young people grow into happy, heal...
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