The Washington State 2021 Legislative Session is underway, and what an important session it is. CTC’s advocacy team met individually with legislators to request support for our work prior to the new year. It has never been more important for CTC to have a voice!
This year, our priority is to maintain state funding. Specifically:
- Maintain funding for neurodevelopmental centers (NDCs). There are 19 NDCs in Washington, and Children’s Therapy Center is one of them. Among other things, this funding supports wages for our program assistants, whose support is essential for delivering quality services to our families.
- Maintain funding for interpretation services. Interpretation services are critical for the population that we serve. Almost 30% of CTC families are dual language learners whose primary language is Spanish, Vietnamese, Somali, Amharic, or Arabic. They rely on trained interpreters to explain what goes on during a therapy session and understand any follow-up necessary for their child’s progress.
- Hold the current rates for our birth-to-three Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) program and Medicaid / Apple Health rates for NDCs. 80% of the services we provide are for children ages birth to three, and supplemental funding allows for additional critical services such as early childhood education and family resource coordination. Also, more than 60% of the services we provide are for children with Apple Health / Medicaid. The reimbursement rate for Apple Health is 40% less than the average commercial insurance payment, so any reductions in reimbursement would be significant.
The following legislators took the time to meet with us and hear our concerns. We are most grateful for their support!
- Representative Pat Sullivan (47th District)
- Representative Mia Gregerson (33rd District)
- Representative Steve Kirby (20th District)
- Representative Eileen Cody (34th District)
- Representative Bill Ramos (5th District)
- Representative Debra Entenman (47th District)
- Senator Mona Das (47th District)
- Representative Laurie Jenkins (27th District)
- Senator Joe Nguyen (34th District)
- Representative Tina Orwall (33rd District)
- Senator Karen Keiser (33rd District)
- Representative Lisa Callan (5th District)
- Senator Steve Conway (29th District)
If you’d like to support CTC’s advocacy work, reach out to your legislator and share CTC’s priorities with them. Let them know you support them, too!
If you’d like to learn more about our legislative process, please follow the links below. Many thanks to Representative Mia Gregerson from Washington’s 33rd Legislative District for sharing these resources with us.
Learn—The whole legislative process, from start to finish, is explained at leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Overview.aspx
Watch—Go to TVW.org for broadcasts of debates, votes, committee meetings, and other events in the House and Senate. There’s also an extensive archive of past events, if you couldn’t watch it live.
Research—To look up legislation by lawmaker or topic, visit app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/