John Bauer, Eva Westley, Madeline Barch, Mason Burley, Julia Cramer, Noa Kay - December 2016

WSIPP’s Board of Directors authorized WSIPP to work on a joint project with the MacArthur Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to extend WSIPP’s benefit-cost analysis to certain health care topics.

We present meta-analytic findings for programs in four health care areas: 1) the promotion of healthy pregnancy and birth; 2) therapies to treat opioid use disorder; 3) the integration of behavioral health and primary care, and 4) patient-centered medical homes.

Adam Darnell, Rebecca Goodvin, Matt Lemon, Marna Miller - December 2016

Initiative 502 (I-502) legalized recreational cannabis for adults in Washington State. The law directs the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to conduct a benefit-cost evaluation of the implementation of I-502.

In this report we summarize the research evidence for 51 programs for the prevention or treatment of youth cannabis use. The programs reviewed include those nominated by DBHR as well as programs from WSIPP’s current set of inventories that have evidence for cannabis outcomes.

Mason Burley - December 2016

The 2014 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to complete a comprehensive assessment of the utilization and capacity needs of public crisis mental health services and conduct a longitudinal study of outcomes and public costs for adults receiving crisis response services. This report also summarizes capacity and utilization information for crisis mental health centers and inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities in Washington.

A preliminary report was published in January 2015.

Madeline Barch, Neil Bania - December 2016

The 2015 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to conduct a benefit-cost analysis of the state's ferry vessel procurement practices. This report presents the results of a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and economic impact analysis (EIA) of a change in policy that shifts construction of ferries out of state. Neither analysis predicts a significant impact on Washington’s economy (either positively or negatively) from building ferries out of state.

RAND - November 2016

The 2015 Washington State Legislature asked WSIPP to contract with RAND to examine policy options for increasing the availability of primary care services in Washington.

These policy options include opening the new Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University in 2017; increasing the number of primary care residency positions in the state; expanding educational loan-repayment incentives to encourage primary care physicians to practice in rural Washington; increasing Medicaid payment rates for primary care physicians in rural Washington; and encouraging the adoption of alternative models of primary care, such as medical homes and nurse-managed health centers, that reallocate work from physicians to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). RAND Corporation researchers projected the effects that these and other policy options could have on the state's rural primary care workforce through 2025. They project a 7% decrease in the number of rural primary care physicians and a 5% decrease in the number of urban ones. None of the policy options modeled in this report, on its own, will offset this expected decrease by relying on physicians alone. However, combinations of these strategies or partial reallocation of rural primary care services to NPs and PAs via such new practice models as medical homes and nurse-managed health centers are plausible options for preserving the overall availability of primary care services in rural Washington through 2025.

RAND's report is available below and can be accessed by clicking here.

Third Sector Intelligence - November 2016

The 2016 Washington State Legislature created the Education Funding Task Force to make recommendations to the legislature regarding the state’s program of basic education. To inform the Task Force’s work, WSIPP was directed to contract with an independent consultant to collect and analyze K-12 public school staff compensation data. The consultant’s final report examines the amount and uses of compensation paid in addition to basic education salary allocations, market rate salaries, and potential local labor market adjustments. The report is in PowerPoint format as submitted to the Task Force on November 15, 2016. The technical appendix provides additional detail on the data collection and analysis methods.

The consultant provided data files containing supplemental pay information submitted by school districts. The files are organized by staff type and can be downloaded by clicking on the relevant link below. The files have been consolidated, cleaned, and standardized from the original submissions. Employee names and certificate numbers have been removed and replaced by a unique research identification number. A description of the data collection process can be found in the report and technical appendix.

Marna Miller, Rebecca Goodvin, Joshua Grice, Chasya Hoagland, Eva Westley - September 2016

The 2013 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to create, in consultation with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), University of Washington Evidence-Based Practice Institute (EBPI), University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute (ADAI), and the Washington Institute for Mental Health Research and Training (WIMHRT), an inventory of evidence-based, research-based, and promising practices.

The initial inventory of interventions and policies in adult mental health and chemical dependency services was published in May 2014. To view the May 2014 results, click here. An update to this inventory was published in January 2015.

While we were not directed by the legislature to update this inventory, a WSIPP Board-approved contract with the Division of Behavioral Health and Rehabilitation at the Department of Social and Health Services enabled WSIPP to review fourteen additional programs and update previously reviewed programs.

Third Sector Intelligence - September 2016

The 2016 Washington State Legislature created the Education Funding Task Force to make recommendations to the legislature regarding the state’s program of basic education. To inform the Task Force’s work, WSIPP was directed to contract with an independent consultant to collect and analyze K-12 public school staff compensation data. The analysis must examine the amount and uses of compensation paid in addition to basic education salary allocations, market rate salaries, and potential local labor market adjustment formulas. The consultant’s interim report describes the data collection process and analysis plans for the final report, due November 15, 2016.

Matt Lemon, Danielle Fumia, Lijian He - July 2016

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy's (WSIPP) Board of Directors approved a contract between WSIPP, the Department of Health, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to evaluate outcomes and conduct a benefit-cost analysis of the GRADS program.

GRADS is a K–12 program for pregnant and parenting teens that focuses on helping students take on the "dual role" of student and parent and prepare them for the world of work. In this evaluation, we compare teen mothers that participated in GRADS to a group of similar teen mothers from districts that did not offer the program.

Based on the results of our analysis, we estimate that GRADS participants have a 10.6 percentage point higher rate of high school graduation by age 22 and a 6.5 percentage point higher rate of postsecondary course enrollment by age 24.

Matt Lemon - July 2016

Washington State provides funding to school districts to help underachieving students through the Learning Assistance Program (LAP). The 2013 Washington State Legislature directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy to prepare an inventory of evidence-based and research-based effective practices, activities, and programs for use by school districts in LAP and to update the inventory each two years thereafter. This report describes the third update to the inventory of evidence-based and research-based practices for use in LAP.