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Legislative Prioritiesrn2creative2018-01-26T11:30:51-08:00
The board members of the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs have approved the following priorities for the 2018 legislative session.
Education | Closing the Opportunity Gaps
Continue to expand early learning programs for our most vulnerable by providing more opportunities for children to enroll in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. Include resources to educate parents, utilizing culturally appropriate strategies such as translation and recorded messages, about the early learning system. Provide additional support, education, and services for those with developmental disabilities.
Support legislation to implement the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee's 2018 recommendations.
Direct additional funding to close the opportunity gaps and fully implement House Bill 1541 strategies. These include:
Increasing funding for the Learning Assistance Program;
Improving educator cultural competence;
Increasing ELL program quality and accountability;
Implementing OSPI task force recommendations to further disaggregate student data;
Diversifying the teaching profession; and
Providing wrap-around services and ensuring integration with school and community-based supports.
Provide equitable resources and strategies, such as a statewide campaign, to recruit, retain, train, and hire more bicultural/bilingual teachers. Increase cultural competency of current teachers through professional development opportunities.
Support programs and policies that promote and value home languages, cultures, and diversity in school curriculum and the classroom.
Address the unmet interpretation and translation needs of limited English proficient parents by providing adequate and certified interpreters for school meetings and ensure schools implement a Language Access Policy and Procedure.
Invest in outreach efforts and translated materials to educate families about changes to state testing and high school graduation requirements.
Provide adequate funding for family and community engagement coordinators and develop best practices for serving diverse communities.
Support financial assistance, recruitment, and outreach programs to help middle and high school students, particularly those from underrepresented Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian communities, to attend college.
Support civics education to ensure API communities understand their rights and the role of government.
The Commission supports HB 1291 and SB 5683, which would improve health care access for Pacific Islanders residing in Washington from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. These communities previously had access to Medicaid, but were excluded in 1996, resulting in poorer health outcomes.
Create policy to enable patients the ability to request translated directions on prescription drug labels to improve their health and safety.
Improve the collection of disaggregated health data for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Provide targeted funding for culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health programs and services, including strategies to reduce stigma and barriers, increase public awareness, train health professionals and educators, and recruit bilingual/bicultural providers.
Support culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies to address problem gambling.
Increase funding for youth marijuana and e-cigarette prevention programs, particularly for culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies.
Ensure AAPIs who receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act continue to have coverage and receive information about federal law changes through community engagement efforts.
Support policies to decrease disparities in environmental exposure leading to poor health outcomes.
Increase access to affordable housing and implement equitable and culturally-appropriate strategies to prevent homelessness, including research and data collection on AAPI housing and homelessness.
Support programs and policies that address the high rate of cardiometabolic diseases among AAPI communities and establish partnerships with community-based organizations that deliver culturally-responsive services.
Support efforts to advance Precision Medicine in Washington State to provide better individualized care.
Provide targeted funding for culturally and linguistically appropriate autism screening tools and applied behavior analysis services, particularly for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Support policies, programs, and services to increase state certification and utilization of minority, veteran, and women-owned businesses.
Provide funding to improve the state online system for businesses and vendors to search and respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for state contracts by conducting a usability study that includes stakeholder input.
Support policies to improve the collection of disaggregated data related to economic issues for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Support programs and services to grow small businesses such as export assistance, financing, and removing barriers to entry.
Provide continuing education on wage and labor rule changes while fostering professional and economic advancement and encourage consistent collaboration and partnership within the API business community.
Increase funding for Naturalization Services, particularly for translated educational materials, to help immigrants and refugees who receive public assistance become citizens, thus making them eligible for federal benefits and not reliant on state programs such as state food assistance.
Protect and educate undocumented residents, refugees, and immigrants currently residing in the state.
Support the Task Force on the Use of Deadly Force in Community Policing recommendations to increase police accountability while still protecting officers who reasonably believe using deadly force is necessary. Additional recommendations included providing more funding for police training, improving data collection on the use of force, and increasing availability of less lethal options.
Enable the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs to advise the Legislature on issues of concern to AAPI communities.
Provide state funding to develop and launch a Census 2020 outreach campaign to ensure AAPI and other communities are informed about the upcoming survey and increase the accuracy of the count.
Increase access to translated materials for voter registration and education and translated ballots.
Support the Washington Voting Rights Act to ensure fair representation for all communities in local elections.
Support youth/young adult leadership and civic engagement programs for civically underrepresented communities.
Provide funding to translate materials and tests to obtain a driver's license into Asian and Pacific Islander languages.
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