As summer and dry weather approaches, officials at the Washington State Department of Health are urging everyone in Washington to prepare for smoky days with unhealthy air quality.  
What people can do now:

• Identify air quality reports for your area. The Washington Smoke Information Blog has a map of current fires and air quality reports statewide. EPA’s Smoke Sense mobile app has location-specific information on smoke and health impacts.
• If you or a family member has heart or lung disease, including asthma, ask your doctor what precautions should be taken when air quality is impacted by smoke. Have necessary medication and recommended supplies on hand.
• Buy a portable air cleaner with a high efficiency HEPA filter and create a “clean” room to spend time in when the air isn’t healthy. Select a room with no fireplace, and few windows and/or doors.
• Find information about health impacts from smoke and more tips on how to stay healthy when smoke levels are high on the department’s website.

While breathing smoke isn’t good for anyone, some people are more likely to have health problems when air quality isn’t good. Sensitive groups include children under 18 and adults over 65, people with heart and lung diseases, people with illnesses and colds, people who have had a stroke, pregnant women and people who smoke. It is especially important for these people to reduce exposures by limiting outdoor activity and staying indoors with cleaner air when it’s smoky outside.

Symptoms from exposure to smoky air can range from minor to life-threatening and include watery or dry eyes, coughing or wheezing, throat and sinus irritation, phlegm, shortness of breath, headaches, irregular heartbeat and chest pain. People experiencing serious symptoms should seek medical attention immediately.

​Vendor Rate Increases: There are several key areas where the Governor made targeted investments for key Medicaid service providers.

• Enhance Community Residential Rate: Community residential service providers, including supported living, group homes and licensed staffed residential homes receive a 13.5 percent rate increase effective January 1, 2020. ($62.2M GF-S; $123.2M Total Funds)
• Community Respite Rate Increase: Rates for Overnight Planned Respite Services and Emergency Respite Services (ERS) are increased to $400-$150 for OPRS and to $450-$550 for ERS for children. ($12.2M GF-S; $27.6M Total Funds)
• Nursing Services Rates: Rates are increased ten percent for in-home Medicaid nursing services and adult family home private duty nursing. ($0.6M GF-S; $1.2M Total Funds)
• Assisted Living Rates: The Assisted Living Facility Medicaid rate is increased and funding is provided for the impact of the 2021 rate rebase. ($0.5M GF-S; $1.2M Total Funds)
• Agency Provider Admin Rate: Home care agencies receive a $0.05 per hour administrative rate increase. ($0.1M: GF-S; $0.2M Total Funds)

Collective Bargaining Agreements: New collective bargaining agreements that affect DDA employees and providers, including:

• Washington Federation of State Employees General classified state employees ($21.5M GF-S; $39.9M Total Funds)
• SEIU 1199 State employee nurses ($1.3M GF-S; $2.5M Total Funds)
• SEIU 775 NW Individual Provider in-home care workers ($23.6M GF-S; $53.6M Total Funds)
• Agency Parity While not bargained separately, in-home care agencies receive comparable changes to the SEIU 775 Individual Provider bargaining agreement. ($3.3M GF-S; $7.5M Total Funds)
• Adult Family Home Council Owners of Adult Family Homes (AFH) bargain with the state for daily rates and special programs. ($8.4M GF-S; $18.8M Total Funds)

State Operate Living Alternative (SOLA) Expansion: New SOLA programs are created for a variety of specific groups:

• Complete 47 SOLA Placements General classified state employees ($6.4M GF-S; $12.6M Total Funds; 74.8 FTE)
• SOLA Community Options   Fifteen SOLA placements, phased-in through FY 2020 to serve Rainier PAT A residents who wish to transition to the community and DDA clients who are discharged from hospitalization. ($4.2M GF-S; $8.4M Total Funds; 51.5 FTE)

Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC) There are several budget steps specifically addressing RHCs:

• RHC Medicaid Compliance: Funding supports compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) certification standards for RHC Intermediate Care Facilities. Beginning in FY 2019, 63 Rainier School residents who are assessed to no longer need or benefit from "active treatment" are transitioning to other RHCs with skilled nursing facilities or to community placements such as SOLAs. ($11.5M GF-S: $22.9 Total Funds; 131.2 FTE)
• Rainier PAT A: On March 6, 2019, Rainer School Program Area Team (PAT) A lost its federal Intermediate Care Facilities certification from CMS. Funding is provided to move remaining Rainier PAT A residents to appropriate placements in other PATs and RHCs. ($0.6M GF-S: $0.5 Total Funds; 2.8 FTE)

High School Transition Students: Approximately 350 DDA clients leaving high school not currently receiving services under a Medicaid waiver will receive employment services through this funding. ($2.2M; $4.0M Total Funds)
Behavioral Health Enhanced Discharge Placements: Six state-operated behavioral health training home beds are established for short-term placements for DDA clients with behavioral health issues. Staffing begins in FY2021, and clients will be placed beginning in FY2022. ($1.0M GF-S; $1.0M Total Funds; 5.8 FTE)
Enhanced Discharge Ramp-Up: An additional 24 SOLA beds are added in a continuation of the transitions of DDA-eligible state hospital residents to enhanced SOLAs. ($5.4 GF-S; $10.5M Total Funds; 62.3 FTE)
If you have questions regarding the 2019-21 biennial budget or other results of the legislative session, please contact Luisa Parada Estrada.

The public education system most directly affects students. Yet we rarely hear from them in conversations about how schools could better serve them.

If you go to a public high school, college or university in Washington state, this is your chance to share your perspective — and to see your writing published in the state’s largest newspaper.
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Our Student Voices program is back for a fourth year. We’re looking for college and high-school students from around the state to share their experiences in Washington’s public school system and tell us how they would change it.

The 2018 Legislature passed Substitute Senate Bill 6560 (SSB 6560) stating that youth leaving a government system must be discharged into safe and stable housing. Government system includes the child welfare system, behavioral health system, juvenile justice system, and the Office of Homeless Youth (OHY) programs.

Young people leaving foster care, juvenile justice, or the behavioral health system are especially vulnerable to becoming homeless. They may have experienced trauma and face challenges such as mental health issues, substance abuse, or have criminal records that inhibit access to employment and housing.

OHY is leading a strategy to engage people with lived expertise and system stakeholders to co-design the system change recommendations for SSB 6560 in collaboration with community organizations. OHY is currently in the research phase. This survey, designed in collaboration with Center for Children Youth Justice and The Mockingbird Society, and is the first of three rounds of research with the main aim to:

​1) Understand the causes of housing instability for system involved youth and young adults. 2) Request feedback on an initial list of recommendations for system reform. 3) Offer up a process to submit additional recommendations. And 4) to Invite future participation in system re-design

Demographic information collected for this survey will only be used to 1) ensure that the survey is inclusive of all groups of individuals who experience the different public systems of care, and 2) to understand the nuances of systems as administered or experienced on the ground across the state. The information collected here is anonymous and completely voluntary.