March 14, 2012
ADSA: BH #2012-003
CR-103 Emergency Filed to chapter 388-78A WAC
Dear Boarding Home Administrator:
The Department has filed a CR-103 Emergency Rule Filing, on Chapter 388-78A Washington Administrative Code (WACs) with the Office of the Code Reviser. The Department has filed these emergency rules to clarify background check requirements from Initiative 1163.
Background Check:
Initiative 1163 requires national fingerprint background checks for long-term care workers hired after January 1, 2012. The national fingerprint background checks may take as long as three weeks, and possibly longer, to be returned.
To help deal with this delay, the Department is adopting emergency rules to allow boarding homes to hire caregivers on a provisional basis pending the results of the fingerprint background check. You can only hire these individuals provisionally if following a name and date of birth background check result shows no disqualifying crimes or findings. If you choose to hire an individual provisionally, they are allowed to have unsupervised access to residents pending the results of the fingerprint background check.
Since emergency rules are not permanent, the Department has also filed a related CR-101 to start the regular rule adoption process on these emergency rules.
You can find the CR-103 and CR-101documents along with the rule changes on the Aging and Disability Services Administration (ADSA) internet website on the Boarding Home Professionals page at http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/professional/bh.htm under the heading "BH Rule Filings".
Thank you for your continued commitment to residents living in boarding homes.
Sincerely,
Joyce Pashley Stockwell, Director
Residential Care Services
Enclosures: CR-103E (WSR 12-05-115)
CR-101 (WSR 12-05-114)