Last year, LCYC celebrated 15 years as an organization. 15 years of systemic advocacy, legal representation of youth in various systems, and building strong community partnerships is no small feat! Still, we know our community is hurting and struggling. This year’s legislative priorities show us that youth and families continue to need advocates in their corner to advance their interests and legal rights.
This year, our legislative agenda revolves around the theme of keeping families together. Family unity is not always possible, but the act of separation should be approached with great caution and care.
In our child welfare work, we are seeing an unprecedented rise of critical incidents across Washington, which has community torn and divided on what the best response is. For context, in 2021, Washington state aligned its child-removal standards with those of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a long-established law intentioned to protect the best interests of children and families . Simultaneously, Washington state has felt the impact of a growing opioid epidemic and reduction in resources for families, resulting in a rise of fatalities or near-fatalities of children who have made contact with DCYF within the past 12 months. In acknowledgement of the impact the opioid epidemic had on child welfare, in 2024 the legislature passed SB 6109, requiring courts to give “great weight” to the presence of opioids in the home when considering taking a child into foster care.
Let’s be clear: child fatalities, of any number and kind, is deeply troubling and tragic. And yet, our state cannot afford to move backwards by lowering the threshold for removal. We believe it’s important to look beyond a simple repeal of the new law since that step would not have an impact on the rise of critical incidents. Families are struggling financially; available services are scarce, and the opioid epidemic is sweeping our entire nation. LCYC, in partnership with the Keeping Families Together coalition, is proposing HB 2497 as a strategy to address the critical incidents crisis by balancing policy changes and the need for more services , which we hope includes support for strengthened coordination between DCYF and community-based service providers, and more options for family-centered treatment and medication for opioid use disorder (or MOUD).
Relatedly, in our youth homelessness work, LCYC files Minor Guardianships petitions on behalf of our youth clients in several counties, which serves as an important tool to reduce unnecessary entry into the child welfare system and prevent youth homelessness. Since the Uniform Guardianship Act was enacted in 2021, many challenges have been identified, creating confusion among petitioners. In partnership with statewide practitioners, LCYC is proposing SB 5837 in effort to create consistency across jurisdictions, remove financial barriers to access the court, and ensure reliable and timely decision-making on cases. One of the changes we are proposing is to a lower the proposed guardian age from 21 to 18 years. This is especially important to our clients as sometimes the guardian that is being proposed is an adult sibling or relative who has already been fulfilling the caretaker role, but due to the current age limitation cannot be the proposed guardian. This splits up families and unduly creates a barrier when all adults should be able to care for minors if they are able to, regardless of age.
Lastly, but not least, we can’t forget about the youth we serve in juvenile court. For the past 18 months, Washington’s juvenile prisons have been overcrowded and have failed to properly rehabilitate the young people separated from their families and communities. We cannot solve this problem by expanding the physical footprint. Instead, we need to reevaluate Washington’s sentencing structure. HB 2389 offers a more cost-effective, fairer and healthier approach to juvenile sentencing by 1) requiring judges to show that community supervision isn’t sufficient before sending a youth to state prison, 2) assess youth progress while incarcerated and allows them to serve in the least restrictive environment that is appropriate and 3) reduces excessive robbery sentences. Robbery is the most disproportionately charged crime in Washington state – Black youth are 27.5x more likely than white youth to be convicted of a robbery offense. We don’t have to choose between community safety or rehabilitation rooted in accountability. We can do both while remaining rooted in family and community.
The Washington legislature will be in session for 60 days in 2026. We invite you to join us in this fight to keep families together by staying updated on our socials and advocating in favor of our agenda with your lawmakers.