DSP training in Washington is regulated by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) through its Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA), with the department's Aging and Long-Term Support Administration (ALTSA) running the curriculum-approval machinery. The rules discussed here — Chapter 388-829 WAC — govern staff of DDA-certified community residential service providers (supported living and similar settings), a distinct track from the generic 75-hour Home Care Aide pathway: DDA community residential workers are expressly exempt from Home Care Aide certification under RCW 18.88B.041.

Initial requirements come in two stages. First, a 5-hour orientation and safety training, using the DSHS-developed course, under WAC 388-829-0045. Then, within 120 days of hire, staff must complete 70 hours of basic training: the 40-hour DDA Residential Services Curriculum — the state's own course, delivered by DDA-approved trainers — plus a 30-hour population-specific block, which may use the state materials or "other curriculum approved by DDA."

Ongoing training is a fixed annual mandate: 12 hours of continuing education each year under WAC 388-829-0085. Both the CE curricula and the instructors who deliver them must be DSHS-approved — so an agency's annual training calendar is built from the state's approved-curriculum inventory, and an LMS that tracks each employee's 12-hour annual cycle against approved course numbers pays for itself at audit time.

Medication support runs through Washington's nurse delegation system: DSPs who perform delegated nursing tasks complete the state's 9-hour core nurse delegation training before a delegating RN may assign them medication or treatment tasks.

The delivery model is a genuine hybrid. The 5-hour orientation and the 40-hour Residential Services Curriculum are state-owned and delivered through DDA-approved trainers. But the 30-hour population-specific block and the entire 12-hour annual CE market are open to outside curricula through a formal approval process: under WAC 388-112A-1010 and -1020, a training entity submits an application with complete course materials, outlines, and skills checklists, meeting ALTSA's Online Training Standards for e-learning, with each application capped at 12 hours; approved courses receive a DSHS curriculum number, and trainer approval runs separately under WAC 388-112A-1240. DSHS publishes a list of approved CE businesses — including an "Online" category — and the state's free CareLearn platform is one option among many, not an exclusive channel.

Training and eTracking Solutions serves Washington community residential providers on both sides of that hybrid: for the open portions, TeTS builds online curricula to the WAC 388-112A approval standard — DSHS curriculum numbers, ALTSA online-standards compliance, and courses shaped to the 12-hour annual CE cycle and the 30-hour population-specific block. For the state-owned pieces, TeTS tracks the 5-hour orientation and the 40-hour DDA Residential Services Curriculum as external milestones, giving agencies one audit-ready record per employee covering the full 75-hour initial sequence, nurse delegation status, and every year's CE hours.