Lawmakers in Washington are divided on whether to dial back a state law critics blame for a sudden spike in deaths and serious injuries among children enmeshed in the state’s child welfare system.
Through June, at least 92 of these children had died or nearly died, the state’s Office of the Family and Children’s Ombuds reported last month. The figures only capture cases the state Department of Children, Youth and Families is aware of, including those not tied to child abuse or neglect.
The initial sponsor of the 2021 law, known as the Keeping Families Together Act, stands by her measure, saying it’s not to blame for the jump.
“We are all in a state of crisis trying to figure it out,” said Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo. “The reality is that this is a community problem that we all now have to face.”
The law raised the standard for separating children from their parents, and aimed to keep them with other family members if they needed to be removed from their parents’ homes due to abuse or neglect. The goal was to stop poverty from being used as a reason to take kids away from their parents, and to avoid inflicting the trauma of being separated from family.
But Republican lawmakers believe the law is keeping children in unsafe environments. And some Democrats are also questioning whether it needs to be adjusted.
“Our state is going in the wrong direction,” said state Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn. “I know that foster care is not perfect, but to me, it’s much more preferable and safer than being dead.”
Meanwhile, to the dismay of Republicans, the state recently pulled support for a facility in Kent caring for drug-exposed babies.
The head of Washington’s child welfare agency says she’s learned “how blunt of an instrument policy is,” and that it can only go so far in addressing these complex cases.
“If we think that a child should be removed, we really need to prove it, and it shouldn’t be easy,” said Secretary Tana Senn, a former state lawmaker who co-sponsored the Keeping Families Together law. “I think that’s been an important change.”
But the chair of the House panel that tackles these issues, Rep. Steve Bergquist, said in an email that if the child fatality and injury statistics don’t improve by this winter, he’s made clear to officials that “there would be a need to revisit this policy next session.”
Bergquist, a Democrat from Renton, hopes to “come up with a bipartisan bill that will help improve supports for our youth and families that are caught up in these difficult situations.”
What that could look like is unclear at this point.
House Democratic leaders, Speaker Laurie Jinkins and Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, deferred to Ortiz-Self on how to proceed with the law.
What’s next?
Couture drafted a bill this past legislative session to lower the standard for removal.
Currently, the state needs to prove a child is at risk of “imminent physical harm.” Couture’s bill would make it “imminent or serious physical harm.”
The measure would also force officials to work from the presumption that children need to be removed if a parent or guardian’s use of any Schedule I or II drug, other than cannabis, puts the child at risk of being exposed to the controlled substance. To get their child back, parents would need to prove six months of sobriety or drug testing.
The Department of Children, Youth and Families, which oversees the state’s child welfare system, doesn’t like the proposal, saying it goes too far and would make it more difficult to reunite children with their families even when it’s safe for them to return.
Couture is open to suggestions. His legislation had some Democratic support, but didn’t get a hearing in Bergquist’s committee this year in Olympia. The chair said he was open to discussing the measure, along with another Democrat-led bill focused on removing kids from homes where parents are using drugs.
The number of children entering the state’s child welfare system since the Keeping Families Together law went into effect in mid-2023 has remained largely stable.
In fiscal year 2023, running from July 2022 to June 2023, around 3,300 children were removed from their parents. This past fiscal year, ending in June, it was about 3,180, according to the Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Fiscal year 2024 saw a major drop in children entering the welfare system, down to just over 2,800, as the Keeping Families Together Act didn’t initially weigh the presence of opioids in determining when children should be placed in foster care away from their parents.
Lawmakers addressed the issue in 2024, instructing courts to give “great weight” when factoring in this risk, and removals ticked back up.
For years, the number of children entering state care has been trending down, from a recent peak of more than 6,000 in 2017. The only time they’ve gone up since then was after legislators passed the 2024 fix.
“I think we’re back to a place where people are having more of a balanced test,” Senn said.
Ortiz-Self is open to discussing changes like those approved in 2024, but thinks people want a simple fix when the overarching problem is children being born with fentanyl in their systems and the opioid crisis.
“What we have to do is figure out, what are the services, what are the things that we need to do to help families and to address this opioid crisis that we are in, but removing, arbitrarily, kids from their homes without any due process is not the answer,” she said.
Senn also points to increasing financial stressors on families as fueling the rise in child fatalities and serious injuries.
Senn’s agency has already taken some steps to respond.
The state now requires “safe child consults” for all child welfare cases involving opioid use and a child younger than 3. These reviews help determine whether officials will allow a child to go home or petition a judge for care elsewhere. Caseworkers on neglect and medically complex cases are also getting increased training.
This story was originally published in the Washington State Standard.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
