2025 Legislative Session 

The following 2025 Workforce Board budget requests have been submitted to the Office of Financial Management for review.

Career Bridge Modernization  

Decision Package 

Washington’s publicfacing, career and education planning portal, Career Bridge, has been undergoing modernization with legislative investment. Procurement delays pushed some updates past the project deadline. Funds are needed now to finish Phase 1, ensuring data moves through data loaders and APIs, not manual updates. Additional site improvements will enhance how information is consumed and improve the user interface. Enhanced, ongoing site maintenance and further upgrades require that two current project positions (2 FTEs) be made permanent. Another 1.5 FTE project staff will oversee Phase II enhancement and four related pilot projects with education and industry partners.

No Wrong Door Integrated Data

Decision Package

A lack of data sharing across the workforce system creates challenges for Washington job seekers and employers. This inefficient and disconnected service delivery has resulted in negative experiences and disengagement for job seekers, ultimately affecting retraining and employment outcomes. The Workforce Board and its partners seek to leverage modern and innovative practices to meaningfully address these longstanding challenges. Through the “no wrong door” approach, shared information across the full lifecycle of service delivery will help job seekers find meaningful work, connect employers with skilled workers, and strengthen economic stability and quality of life in Washington.

Workforce Digital Pathways

Decision Package

Many marginalized communities in Washington face barriers to accessing quality jobs in the digital economy due to a lack of affordable and reliable internet, devices, skills, and support, with the digital divide disproportionately affecting the participation and opportunities of vulnerable groups. Continuing the 2024 state budget investment, public, private, state, and local partners will work together, building on existing infrastructures, to narrow this digital divide through expanded or enhanced career pathways leading to good jobs through the Workforce Digital Pathways Initiative. Initiative solutions include digital literacy education and credentials, rapid response skills gap programs to support training for new jobs created from federal Infrastructure Investment grants, workbased training and supports, and career readiness resources and tools.

WAVE Funding

Decision Package

In a time of rising college costs and skilled labor shortages, the Washington Award for Vocational Excellence (WAVE) celebrates top CTE students at Washington high schools and community and technical colleges. The scholarship pays for two years of tuition or other expenses for up to 147 awardees each year—three from each Legislative District. Students may attend an institution of their choice, as well as registered apprenticeships under a new policy bill. This scholarship program has been significantly underfunded since its 2022 relaunch. Additional funding is needed to match the rising cost of postsecondary education.

Health Workforce Planning

Decision Package

Policy efforts related to the healthcare and behavioral health workforce have significantly expanded, even as funding has decreased due to the expiration of a budget proviso. The remaining funds appropriated to the Workforce Board for staffing the Health Workforce Council, supporting related behavioral health workforce projects, and maintaining Washington’s Health Workforce Sentinel Network are insufficient to continue the data collection, analysis, and policy work required by the Council’s statute (RCW 28C.18.120 and ESSB 5950). To address this gap, the Workforce Board requests ongoing funding for an additional 1.65 FTE (for a total of 2.5 FTE dedicated to Council work) and an increase to the funds for the Sentinel Network to support healthcare and behavioral health workforce research and policy development in the state.

Long-Term Care Initiative Continuation 

Decision Package

Long-term care (LTC) staffing challenges are creating situations that place those needing this critical care at risk. These challenges are expected to worsen due to an increased demand for services coupled with a shrinking workforce. The LTC Workforce Initiative is a multiorganization collaborative of professionals that has spent the last two years focused on LTC policy development, comprehensive research, and the launch of a pilot LPN registered apprenticeship. Funding for this work ends in June of 2025. This request is seeking funding to continue the focused efforts of the Initiative, including continued support for prerequisite courses for potential LPN apprentices.

WAVE Scholarship Administration

Decision Package

The Washington Award for Vocational Excellence (WAVE) is a merit scholarship awarded to CTE students. WAVE was suspended for 12 years during the Great Recession. The Board received funds to support the relaunch, but building back to prerecession programming has been staff intensive, causing staff expenses beyond the funds provided. To meet reasonable administrative standards for the program such as: outreach, applicant support, recruiting and training approximately 100 volunteer reviewers, and processing an increasing number of WAVE applications, the Workforce Board requests funding for fulltime staffing and software licensing costs to sustain appropriate access and timely award decisions for applicants.

Contracts Support

Decision Package 

The Workforce Board requests ongoing funding to hire a Contracts Specialist 3 (1.0 FTE). In FY 2024, the Workforce Board executed 26 contracts with a total value of more than $30 million without dedicated contracts staff. We request ongoing funding for contracts staff to carry out procurement and contracting activities so project/policy staff will not be taken away from their primary job duties to complete these activities. This will allow the agency to carry out legislative mandates to contract and procure goods/services efficiently and to comply with state procurement requirements.

Reasonable Accommodation

Decision Package 

The Workforce Board is requesting a fund for Reasonable Accommodation (RA) requests from staff going through the RA process. Under current agency funding limitations, RA requests must be put through the legislative budget process, creating a much longer lag time between approved requests for staff members seeking accommodation for essential work functions.

Federal Perkins CTE Match Funds

Decision Package

The Workforce Board requests a maintenance budget adjustment to support critical activities and functions necessary to comply with federal and state mandates to administer the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) program. Currently, insufficient state administrative funding is hindering the Perkins program’s ability to reach its full potential. This limitation prevents the program from meeting the required dollar for dollar match, which is necessary to fully utilize federal CTE grant funds. By providing state specific CTE funding to match to federal outlays, the state can ensure that all federal grant allocations are effectively deployed, and that Washington doesn’t forfeit any unspent funds.