wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > SB 5762 > Substitute Bill
(1) Establishing the state designated 988 contact hubs and enhancing the crisis response system will require collaborative work between the department, the authority, and regional system partners within their respective roles. The department shall have primary responsibility for designating 988 contact hubs, and shall seek recommendations from the behavioral health administrative services organizations to determine which 988 contact hubs best meet regional needs. The authority shall have primary responsibility for developing, implementing, and facilitating coordination of the crisis response system and services to support the work of the designated 988 contact hubs, regional crisis lines, and other coordinated regional behavioral health crisis response system partners. In any instance in which one agency is identified as the lead, the expectation is that agency will communicate and collaborate with the other to ensure seamless, continuous, and effective service delivery within the statewide crisis response system.
The statewide 988 behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention line account is created in the state treasury. All receipts from the statewide 988 behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention line tax imposed pursuant to this chapter must be deposited into the account. Moneys may only be spent after appropriation.
Expenditures from the account may only be used for:
Ensuring the efficient and effective routing of calls made to the 988 crisis hotline to an appropriate crisis hotline center or designated 988 contact hub. Expenditures from the account must be prioritized to fully fund the operation of 988 crisis hotline centers and designated 988 contact hubs to achieve an in-state call response rate specified in RCW 71.24.890;
A contract with or to fund an entity to provide specialized crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and follow-up services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority youth and young adults contacting the 988 hotline if, on or after January 1, 2025, the federal government discontinues, suspends, or materially limits specialized crisis services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority youth and young adults available through the 988 crisis hotline, including any dedicated call routing or specialized line option;
Personnel and the provision of acute behavioral health, crisis outreach, and crisis stabilization services, as defined in RCW 71.24.025, by directly responding to the 988 crisis hotline and enhancing mobile crisis service standards and performance provided through mobile rapid response crisis teams and community-based crisis teams endorsed under RCW 71.24.903. Ten percent of the annual receipts from the tax must be dedicated to the establishment grants, performance payments, and supplemental performance payments for mobile rapid response crisis teams and community-based crisis teams endorsed under RCW 71.24.903 and endorsement activities in RCW 71.24.903, up to 30 percent of which is dedicated to mobile rapid response crisis teams and community-based crisis teams endorsed under RCW 71.24.903 that are affiliated with a tribe in Washington; and
During the 2025-2027 fiscal biennium, the legislature may appropriate moneys from the statewide 988 behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention line account to maintain and expand behavioral health crisis response services including services provided by mobile crisis response teams, 23-hour crisis relief centers, and other community settings providing services to individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Appropriations made for these purposes are not subject to the limitation in subsection (3) of this section. It is the intent of the legislature that this policy will be continued in subsequent fiscal biennia.
Moneys in the account may not be used to supplant general fund appropriations for behavioral health services or for medicaid covered services to individuals enrolled in the medicaid program.