2025 Legislative Session
The Workforce Board advises the Governor and Legislature on workforce development policy to shape strategies and create and sustain a high-skill, high-wage economy. The budget requests below showcase some of the agency’s top priorities.
The following 2025 Workforce Board budget requests have been submitted to the Office of Financial Management for review.
2025 Workforce Board Agency Request One Pager
Career Bridge Modernization
Career Bridge Modernization Fact Sheet
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
No Wrong Door Integrated Date Fact Sheet
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
Workforce Digital Pathways Fact Sheet
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
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
Health Workforce Planning Fact Sheet
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
Long-Term Care Initiative Continuation Fact Sheet
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
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
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
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
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.
The Workforce Board and its partners have crafted a unified policy agenda for 2025 to advance the goals of Washington’s workforce plan, Talent and Prosperity for All (TAP). Focused on six priorities, this agenda reflects a commitment to building an equitable, dynamic system that strengthens communities, fuels economic growth, and empowers workers and businesses to succeed.
TAP 2025 Workforce System Legislative Agenda One Pager.
Provide Additional Funding for the Job Skills Program (JSP)
In partnership with SBCTC and local community and technical colleges, this investment will address unmet need for employers by expanding program and college capacity. SBCTC has put in a request to increase grant funds available for this program. System partners are in support of their request and ask policymakers to support investment in the program. More on JSP here.
Maintain Funding for the Economic Security for All (EcSA) Program
Ongoing appropriations to the Employment Security Department (ESD) for the core ECSA services adjusted for inflation. Simplify EcSA funding streams under a single maintenance budget line item to support local board services to move people out of poverty and into self-sufficiency, including post-employment retention support. This request presumes a continued interagency agreement with ESD and the Department of Commerce to direct Community Reinvestment Funds to enhance EcSA pro-equity poverty reduction services. More on EcSA here.
Fully Fund the Washington Award for Vocational Excellence (WAVE)
Full funding WAVE to up to $12,000 a year for two years. The WAVE Scholarship supports up to 147 winners per year, or three per 49 Legislative Districts. This scholarship sends a clear message that career and technical education (CTE) is valued, that the students enrolled and excelling in CTE are valued, and that Washington proudly supports this work with scholarship awards. This scholarship provides a financial incentive and encourages students to further their education. Agency request legislation submitted by the Workforce Board will implement this request in statute and add registered apprenticeship participants at community and technical colleges as eligible applicants.
Digital Workforce Pathways Initiative
For five years, a collective impact group has driven the creation and expansion of policies meant to support increased access to, and creation of, training, education, and support programs focused on digital literacy and IT career pathways. These are designed to close race, gender, and ability gaps in the IT workforce by reducing digital illiteracy and building accessible entry points into IT careers. With a one-time state funding investment in 2024, the Board kickstarted this essential work and laid the groundwork for ongoing progress. A legislative request has been submitted to ensure continued efforts to bridge this critical digital divide.
No Wrong Door – Data Integration for Integrated Service Delivery
The Workforce Board and a multi-agency stakeholder team have developed a proposal for the technology solution to begin data sharing in support of streamlined customer intake across the workforce system. The Governor and Legislature provided two-year funding for the planning phase, which ends June 30, 2025. Activities culminated in a feasibility and analysis report and a request for funds to build out the technology solution, including the resource needs of partner agencies for full, systemwide implementation over four to six years.
Workforce Impact of Benefits Cliffs
The workforce system has long recognized the need to tackle the damaging effects of benefits cliffs on workforce development. When individuals surpass income thresholds, they often face the abrupt loss of critical public assistance, like healthcare, childcare, housing, and disability supports, leaving families struggling just as they near self-sufficiency. This not only undermines financial stability but also hampers employers’ ability to retain skilled talent. We are calling for decisive action from policymakers: protect and enhance benefit incentives, provide comprehensive wrap-around services to help workers advance into higher-paying careers while managing the loss of benefits, and dramatically expand access to affordable childcare
and housing.
Updated 12.16.2024
2025 bills of interest coming soon!
RCW 28C.18.060(5) directs the Board to “… review and make recommendations to the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and the Legislature on operating and capital budget requests for operating agencies of the state training system for purposes of consistency with the state comprehensive plan for workforce training and education.”
This statutory requirement provides the framework for the review of workforce system requests, and implementation of the state’s strategic plan for workforce development, Talent and Prosperity for All (TAP), enabling a focus on system-specific legislative requests that can move the workforce system toward one or more of the goals and strategies outlined in the plan.
To see more details on each request, see the submitted information from the agencies here: https://wtb.wa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Finalized-Endorsement-Packet-2025.pdf.
The Board endorsed recommendations are as follows:
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)
- Investing in 9th Grade Success to Support On-Time Graduation
- Career Preparation and Launch Grants
- Driving Equitable Postsecondary Opportunities from College Enrollment through Graduation
- Increasing Equitable Access to Dual Credit and Reducing Barriers to Credential Attainment.
- Funding the Successful Implementation of a Statewide High School and Beyond Plan Platform
- Preparing Washington’s Future Workforce with Microsoft IT Academy
- Making Progress on the State’s Plan to Oversee the Educational Delivery of Justice-Involved Youth
- Statewide Support for Student Mental and Behavioral Health
- Maintaining Targeted Support and Expansion of the Washington Educator Workforce
- Creating New Opportunities for Career-Connected Environmental Learning
Employment Security Department (ESD)
- Agricultural Workforce Services
- Career Connect Washington
- Economic Security for All (EcSA) (Already a board support item)
- Justice Involved Employment Support
- Washington Service Corps
WaTech
- IE&E Roadmap Continuation
Department of Health (DOH)
- Behavioral Health Provider Supervisor Stipend Program
- Improving Credentialing Timelines
- Health Workforce in Rural Areas
Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS)
- Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Employment and Training
Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)
- Extended Foster Care – Incentive Payment Program
- Adolescent Services – LifeSet and Independent Living
- Comply with New CCDF Requirements
- WCCC Eligibility 75% SMI and Dual Language
- Child Care Subsidy Base Rates