Legislative decisions impact our everyday lives, from the classroom to the boardroom. By working together, the school districts across Capital Region ESD 113 have a stronger voice to influence those decisions. As the old saying goes, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Each year, we work with our districts to determine legislative priorities and develop messaging. We design materials to support the priorities and make them available for districts to use and share to tell their own story at a local level.

ESD113 Legislative Priorities pdf version

2023 Legislative Priorities

Basic Education Staffing

The Legislature has recently taken incremental steps to improve the state’s special education funding gap by increasing support for safety net awards, transition services, professional development, and family liaisons.

RECOMMENDATION: Improve the Prototypical School Funding Model to ensure staffing levels that support the whole child.

RECOMMENDATION: Calculate salary allocations to account for actual costs.

RECOMMENDATION: Develop and implement multiple educator pathways and incentives to ensure sufficient and diverse staff.

School Construction

School district bonds require a supermajority vote to pass. And when they do pass, actual construction costs often exceed what schools can propose in their initiatives.

RECOMMENDATION: Allow citizens to approve bonds with a simple majority.

RECOMMENDATION: Update the funding formulas for the Construction Cost Allowance and Student Space Allocation to reflect actual construction costs and educational space needs.

Early Learning

High-quality early learning programs can pave the way for success in school and throughout life — including better physical and mental health.

RECOMMENDATION: Expand student access to preschool and transitional kindergarten.

RECOMMENDATION: Invest in and support skilled early learning educators who are compensated for the complex and demanding jobs they perform.

Special Education

A gap between funding and best practices continues to persist, despite the Legislature’s incremental efforts to incrementally invest resources.

RECOMMENDATION: Take more deliberate action to increase funding to reach the actual cost of safety net awards, transition services, professional development, and family liaisons currently borne at the local level.

Phillips Burgess Government Relations, LLC
360-742-3500
724 Columbia St NW, Suite 320
Olympia, WA 98501