Best Starts for Kids is updating the process for making funding decisions. New legislation, Ordinance 20086 is helping ensure Best Starts is delivering the most benefit to our community in partnerships with grantees and contracted providers.
For any new award of Best Starts funds between now and the end of 2027, Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) Director will transmit a letter to the King County Council, certifying the following information:
- The program advances the goals of the Best Starts for Kids levy with identifiable and measurable outcomes;
- For new requests for proposals, that there were at least two proposers or grantees considered, or if not, the reasons used to determine that only one service provider supported by Best Starts for Kids levy moneys for the applicable service or program was qualified to propose or only one grant recipient was qualified.
- The proposed grant recipient or contractor is qualified, capable, and prepared to deliver the required services in a responsible, timely manner;
- The proposed grant recipient has the necessary financial management, accounting, reporting systems, and qualified personnel to responsibly administer the public funds to be provided;
- The proposed grant recipient has the capacity and capability to accurately and timely report to King County on the desired outcomes for the program; and
- The proposed grant recipient, contractor, or any person in a leadership or managerial capacity responsible for administering the moneys or programming by the proposed grant recipient or contractor, has not previously been identified by King County government as having directly and materially participated in conduct that has caused any program or grant to be terminated for wrongdoing or misuse of moneys, has not been directly and materially involved in conduct at a program or organization identified by the King County auditor, ombuds office, or department staff where misspending, misusing, or otherwise improperly obtaining King County funds was found, or, if wrongdoing or misuse of moneys has been identified by King County government, the director has determined that all reasonable steps have been taken to recover any previously misused moneys and adequate corrective action has been implemented.
DCHS and Public Health Seattle—King County are implementing these changes and will ask every applicant to a Best Starts procurement to reply to a brief survey about their organization’s service delivery capacity, financial and data reporting capacity, and prior corrective actions. All awarded organizations must meet the capacity requirements of the solicitation. The capacity requirements vary based on the size and complexity of the anticipated award. Applicants not-yet-awarded Best Starts solicitations will receive an email from ContractingWithDCHS@kingcounty.gov about how to provide the additional information to support final award decisions. Emails are expected to go out shortly, so please monitor your inbox closely.
All future Best Starts funding opportunities throughout the rest of the 2026-2027 biennium will include the new questions as part of the full application process in Agiloft. Contracts will be executed no sooner than 10 days after transmittal of the certification letter to Council.
Thank you for your flexibility as we work through these changes. If you have questions, you can reach out to Best.Starts@kingcounty.gov.
