(1) Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the department shall distribute early childhood equity grants to eligible applicants. Eligible applicants include play and learn groups, licensed or certified child care centers and family home providers, license-exempt child care programs, and early childhood education and assistance program contractors. The equity grants are intended to serve as a step toward expanding access to early learning statewide and transforming Washington's early learning system to make it more inclusive and equitable. The department shall administer the early childhood equity grants to support inclusive and culturally and linguistically specific early learning and early childhood and parent support programs across the state.

(2) The department must conduct an equitable process to prioritize grant applications for early childhood equity grant assistance. An eligible applicant may receive an early childhood equity grant once every two years. When conducting the equitable grant process, the department must:

(a) Solicit project applications from a racially and geographically diverse pool of eligible applicants statewide;

(b) Provide application materials in the five most commonly spoken languages in the state and broadly communicate using a variety of strategies to reach diverse communities;

(c) Require applicants to demonstrate their proposed uses of early childhood equity grant funds to incorporate either inclusive practices or culturally and linguistically supportive and relevant practices, or both, into early learning program design, delivery, education, training, and evaluation; and

(d) Provide technical assistance to any applicant who needs it.

Short title—Findings—Intent—Conflict with federal requirements—2021 c 199: See notes following RCW 43.216.770.