HB 2689 Washington House · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Concerning the working connections child care program.

HB 2689 expands Washington State's Working Connections Child Care program to help more working families afford quality child care. It gradually increases income eligibility thresholds: from 60% to 75% of state median income by 2029, and to 85% by 2031, while maintaining current rules for children under 13 or with special needs. The bill also raises subsidy rates to cover 75% of the market rate for licensed child care providers starting July 2026, and caps program enrollment at 33,000 households with prioritized access for families receiving temporary assistance or with special needs. These changes aim to increase access to affordable child care for low- and middle-income working families across the state.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Mar 2026

Signed into Law

Apr 2026

Introduced Jan 28, 2026 Signed Apr 1, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Substitute Bill → Substitute Passed Legislature · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to add formal certification of enrollment and significantly restructured child care subsidy payment rules. The most critical change replaces a simple absence-based payment system with a new attendance-based model that calculates payments based on the specific number of days a child attends in a month, rather than just counting absences. Additionally, the bill introduced stricter requirements for market rate surveys to ensure they are valid for setting future subsidy rates.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to include formal legislative certification procedures and refined the applicability of subsidy rules to explicitly cover licensed or certified providers in specific attendance scenarios.

REQUIREMENT

Added a formal certification of enrollment page to document that the bill passed both the House and Senate on March 11, 2026, with specific vote counts.

Changed child care subsidy payment rules from an absence-based system to an attendance-based system, where payment amounts depend on whether a child attended 16+ days, 9-15 days, or 1-8 days in a month.

Established new validity criteria for market rate surveys, requiring a minimum 40% provider response rate and a trend in response rates to be considered valid for setting subsidy rates.

Removed the provision that allowed providers to claim a full month of payment with only 10 or fewer absences, replacing it with the new attendance thresholds.

DEFINITION

Clarified that subsidy base rates must be uniform across a specific region, ensuring no provider receives a different rate than others in the same area.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 11, 2026 · House Mar 11, 2026

How they voted

35–16

Passed

Total votes 51

Mar 11, 2026

D Democratic31

31 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican20

4 Yea 16 Nay

80% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 1, 2026

Signed into law

Governor signed.

executive

Mar 12, 2026

Upper · Passed

President signed.

upper

Mar 12, 2026

Lower · Passed

Speaker signed.

lower

Mar 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed final passage; yeas, 51; nays, 45; absent, 0; excused, 2.

lower

Mar 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

House concurred in Senate amendments.

lower

Mar 11, 2026

Upper · Passed

Committee amendment(s) adopted with no other amendments.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

Minority; without recommendation.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

Minority; do not pass.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

WM - Majority; do pass with amendment(s).

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

Executive action taken in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 3:00 PM.

upper

Mar 9, 2026

Upper · Passed

Public hearing in the Senate Committee on Ways & Means at 10:00 AM.

upper

Mar 2, 2026

Committee

Referred to Rules 2 Review.

lower

Mar 2, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; do not pass.

lower

Mar 2, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; without recommendation.

lower

Mar 2, 2026

Lower · Passed

Executive action taken in the House Committee on Appropriations at 10:30 AM.

lower

Feb 26, 2026

Lower · Passed

Public hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations at 1:30 PM.

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors