Child deaths and critical injuries in Washington\u2019s child welfare system hit a record high in 2025.<\/p>\n
State lawmakers are looking for solutions, and Democrats and Republicans each have proposals. They would increase court oversight in certain child welfare cases, keep investigations open longer and encourage keeping children at home while requiring services. Lawmakers are also looking at adding money for caseworkers and other supports.<\/p>\n
In 2025, 22 children enmeshed in child welfare died and 35 more nearly died, state officials told lawmakers last Wednesday. About half of these incidents involved opioids. Children ages 0 to 3 are most likely to be hurt. These cases cover deaths and injuries related to maltreatment where families have been involved in the child welfare system in the past year.<\/p>\n
The total of 57 is an increase over 49, 50 and 43, respectively, in the past three years.<\/p>\n
The preliminary numbers shared last week didn\u2019t quite reach the doubling or tripling feared based on the figures early in 2025. State officials believe this could be due to declines in opioid overdoses over the summer.<\/p>\n
Republicans blame a 2021 law called the\u00a0Keeping Families Together Act<\/a>\u00a0for the rise in deaths and injuries. The law raised the standard for separating children from their parents, and aimed to keep them with other relatives instead of foster care. 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.<\/p>\n Lawmakers revamped the law in 2024, instructing courts to give \u201cgreat weight\u201d factoring in the presence of opioids when deciding whether to separate children from their parents. Removals ticked up.<\/p>\n Still, since the law was first passed, fewer children have been entering foster care than exiting.<\/p>\n Gov. Bob Ferguson\u2019s\u00a0proposed budget<\/a>\u00a0includes state funding for more caseworkers and improving the workload of existing staff. He also earmarked money to add slots to the\u00a0Parent-Child Assistance Program<\/a>\u00a0to support mothers with substance use disorder and other work focused on addressing the risk of drugs to toddlers.<\/p>\n Vickie Ybarra, the assistant secretary for partnership, prevention and services at the Department of Children, Youth and Families, said the spending plan \u201cincluded a set of interventions to help prevent critical incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPrograms that will help us better engage families with substance use disorder treatment and create home environments for young children that are more safe and connect families with services,\u201d Ybarra said in a Senate committee meeting.<\/p>\n The Department of Children, Youth and Families has already taken some steps to address the increase in deaths and injuries.<\/p>\n The state now requires \u201csafe child consults\u201d 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. Officials have also hosted listening sessions with staff to help identify roadblocks to working with families with drug use issues.<\/p>\n Legislative committees heard four policy proposals tackling the issue last week. None of them look to overhaul the Keeping Families Together Act.<\/p>\n Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, the sponsor of the Keeping Families Together Act, initially pitched\u00a0ambitious legislation<\/a>\u00a0to tackle the safety issues. The bill\u2019s myriad provisions would have, among other things, expanded access to legal counsel for at-risk mothers and provided nurses to support parents with open Child Protective Services investigations.<\/p>\n Much of what this measure envisioned will instead be handled through the budget process later in the legislative session, lawmakers said.<\/p>\n What\u2019s left is\u00a0House Bill 2660<\/a>\u00a0to increase court oversight of Child Protective Services cases involving children under age 5 who are allowed to stay with their parents instead of being placed in foster care. It would allow judges to order parents to comply with conditions they deem necessary to maintain the child\u2019s safety. Ortiz-Self is sponsoring the bill.<\/p>\n It\u2019s focused on kids who aren\u2019t yet going to school, where teachers or others might recognize signs of abuse or neglect.<\/p>\n Ortiz-Self has been firm in her opinion that her 2021 law shouldn\u2019t be rolled back.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must address critical incidents that continue to occur, that have occurred before the law, during the law, after the law,\u201d said Ortiz-Self, a Mukilteo Democrat.<\/p>\n \u201cThis just clarifies the policy that reasonable concern for those little ones is reason to get the courts to mandate certain conditions be met,\u201d she said of her new bill.<\/p>\n The Department of Children, Youth and Families likes the legislation as it forces parents to participate in services. Refusing court-ordered services wouldn\u2019t immediately mean a child is removed. The state would still have to convince a judge that was necessary.<\/p>\n Others have concerns about the bill\u2019s constitutionality and fear it\u2019ll keep children in potentially unsafe homes.<\/p>\n \u201cParents have important liberty interests at stake,\u201d said Amelia Watson, with the\u00a0Parents Representation Program<\/a>\u00a0at the state Office of Public Defense. \u201cAllowing the court to order evaluations, examinations and services over a parent\u2019s objection\u2026would impact those fundamental liberty and privacy interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Bill 6319<\/a>, meanwhile, looks to keep Child Protective Services cases open longer.<\/p>\n Currently, state caseworkers have to close investigations into allegations of abuse or neglect within 90 days, except in cases where a parent agrees to participate in services or police are investigating. After the inquiry, the state has to decide if the initial allegations are founded or not.<\/p>\n The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, directs DCYF to keep cases open beyond 90 days if they involve a child under age 4 and high-potency synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. This would start in 2027 if the bill is passed. Investigations couldn\u2019t go beyond nine months.<\/p>\n The goal is to address harm children experience after an initial state investigation, said Wilson.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is some kind of a slow release where families feel supported,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Watson worries this proposal \u201cexpands oversurveillance of parents\u201d without access to legal counsel.<\/p>\n Kim Justice, director of public policy for Partners for Our Children, said keeping cases open could help with safety, leading to \u201cstronger engagement and better follow through with services among parents.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Bill 5979<\/a>\u00a0focuses on dependency petitions filed in court that don\u2019t argue children should be removed from their parents, but that a court needs to order services for the family.<\/p>\n This bill calls for developing guidelines and training on these in-home dependencies as an option to support and supervise families without having to resort to putting kids in foster care. It follows similar recommendations from the\u00a0Office of Family and Children\u2019s Ombuds<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justice argued it strikes an important middle ground.<\/p>\n \u201cOur system is framed as a choice between two extremes, removing a child or closing the case with no further involvement,\u201d she told lawmakers last week. \u201cIn reality, there\u2019s a wide range of options in between. This bill addresses one of those responses.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Children, Youth and Families argues the work envisioned in the bill is unnecessary because it already has a process to file for in-home dependencies.<\/p>\n State\u00a0law<\/a>\u00a0defines a \u201cdependent\u201d child as one who has been abandoned, abused or neglected or \u201chas no parent, guardian, or custodian capable of adequately caring for the child, such that the child is in circumstances which constitute a danger of substantial damage to the child\u2019s psychological or physical development.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn situations where that exists, it is not always advisable to do an in-home dependency,\u201d said Julie Watts, the agency\u2019s deputy government affairs director.<\/p>\n House Bill 2511<\/a>\u00a0looks to define \u201cimminent physical harm,\u201d the standard courts use to decide whether to remove kids from their home. Judges across the state are applying this standard inconsistently, Watts said.<\/p>\n The legislation would define the term as a situation where \u201cthere exists a substantial risk of serious harm to the child\u2019s safety or well-being. This risk may arise from conditions in the home, the caregiving environment, or caregiver conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n Opponents see this as undercutting the standard set in the Keeping Families Together Act.<\/p>\n Examples cited in the bill include physical abuse, emotional neglect, exposure to chronic unsafe conditions, failure to provide necessary supervision, caregiver impairment due to drug use and \u201cother circumstances reasonably likely to cause significant developmental, psychological, or physical injury.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison Rogers, who works at the Department of Children, Youth and Families in child welfare, said courts are interpreting imminent physical harm in the \u201cstrictest possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the ability to create a policy that aligns the intent of the law with how it plays out in court,\u201d she said in a House committee hearing. \u201cPrioritizing reunification is possible, while also saying that children shouldn\u2019t be in actively dangerous situations.\u201d<\/p>\n The bill dealing with the \u201cimminent physical harm\u201d definition is the only one of the four bills on child welfare issues not scheduled for a committee vote this week.<\/p>\n This article has been reposted with permission from the Washington State Standard, part of\u00a0States Newsroom<\/a>, the nation\u2019s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization and committed to shining \u201ca light on policy and politics in all 50 states.\u201d\u00a0Click here to support nonprofit<\/a>, freely distributed, independent local journalism.\u00a0Read\u00a0this article<\/a>\u00a0and others\u00a0online at Washington State Standard.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2025, 57 kids died or nearly died in the system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":107991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,353],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-take-action"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe policy ideas<\/h4>\n
Dependencies and definitions<\/h4>\n
\n