Editorial: New agency for children, families will improve outcomes

By The Herald Editorial Board

The Legislature’s next session, which begins Monday, could be remembered for several major accomplishments when work concludes later this year. That’s the hope.

Chief among them, of course, would be passing a education funding plan that reforms the local school levy system and puts the responsibility for amply paying for basic education on the state as required by the constitution.

The state also must reform a mental health system beset with safety and capacity issues that have incurred federal and court scrutiny and resulted in costly lawsuits.

As important as those tasks are, the Legislature also has the opportunity this session to revamp a sprawling and fragmented collection of agencies and efforts expected to address the needs of children, youths and families and create a new network that more efficiently meets those needs and better delivers services when and where they can do the most good.

Gov. Jay Inslee last year created a bipartisan 16-member committee of those most closely involved in children and family services, including two senators and two representatives, to draft recommendations for the creation of a new cabinet-level department.

Following seven months of study and discussion, a 70-page report outlines the creation of the Department of Children, Youth and Families, which would break away agencies from the state Department of Social and Health Services — including Child Protective Services, foster care services and other child welfare services — and merge them with juvenile justice programs and the Department of Early Learning.

DSHS, as noted in the report, has a staff of 17,500 employees with responsibilities as diverse as the child services noted above as well as the state’s psychiatric hospitals and its long-term care system for the elderly and disabled. The department’s size and complexity have tended to force the child service agencies to compete for attention and funding among the department’s other responsibilities.

Be creating a stand-alone department, said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Shoreline, who was a co-chairwoman on the committee, the state would be using the same model that it used 10 years ago to create the Department of Early Learning, which brought together programs that support child development and promote readiness for kindergarten and beyond.

Kagi, who had long advocated the creation of the Department of Early Learning, told The Herald Editorial Board that she had not always been convinced of the need for a separate department dedicated to children and families. Similar legislation was proposed more than 10 years ago but did not advance.

But Kagi now sees it as the best way to deliver services to children and parents earlier when intervention can have the greatest chance of changing lives and avoiding greater costs to children, families and society.

Kagi said the committee was unanimous in its enthusiasm for the new department and believes there is bipartisan support in the Legislature. State agency directors and employees, as well, are backing the reforms.

Along with better organizing and connecting state agencies, the new department also could provide better coordination with children’s advocacy groups and other public service providers that have regular, if not daily contact with children, particularly school districts. The Everett School District has shown how tracking down truant students and assessing their barriers to attendance has helped it return students to the classroom and helped lead to one of the highest graduation rates in the state. Coordination between schools and a new state agency could better deliver the services that help keep kids in school.

The programs that are involved total about $1.5 billion annually. A phased-in creation of the Department of Children, Youth and Families — starting with the merger of the Department of Early Learning and DSHS’s Children’s Administration agencies in 2018 and bringing in juvenile justice programs in 2019 — is estimated to cost $14 million to $18 million, money that has been included in Inslee’s budget.

This will be a huge undertaking, and not something where corners should be cut either in its funding or implementation.

The Legislature should also recognize the need to restore agency staffing and compensation, as Inslee’s budget outlines, to provide the salaries and support that employees in these agencies need to do their jobs.

The Legislature is continuing work to deliver a first-class education system, one that honors the state constitution’s promise to meet its paramount duty to amply fund education.

Addressing the needs of families and children, particularly those who are at-risk and of a young age, will best prepare all children to take full advantage of that education.