(The Center Square) – Members of the Department of Children Youth and Families Oversight Board met Wednesday to discuss proposed changes to legislation that critics say has led to an alarming increase in the numbers of children who have died in the Washington state welfare system in recent years.
The board also discussed and ultimately rejected adding the secretary of DCYF or executive staff to the board as a nonvoting member.
House Bill 1227 (Keeping Families Together Act) made it more difficult to remove children from homes with parents or caregivers who are battling drug addiction, requiring “imminent physical harm” before removal. The idea being it was in the child’s and parents best interest to keep families together, rather than place children in the foster care system.
Critics blame 1227 for the devastating increase in child fatalities and near fatalities with 2025 on pace to be the worst year ever.
According to the Office of Family and Children’s Ombuds, which investigates complaints about state agencies involved with children in need of protection, in the first six months of 2025, there were 92 critical incidents with children killed or nearly killed while under state supervision. Many of the incidents involved fentanyl and accidental ingestion.
Senate Bill 6109, which passed in 2024, was meant to clarify procedures for child removal due to high-potency opioid risks, focusing on proving actual severe harm and ensuring due process for parents.
Again, critics say SB 6109 did not prioritize the protection of vulnerable children.
The first hour of the Wednesday meeting was spent on members discussing and debating proposed changes to add or exclude a nonvoting member from the executive leadership of DCYF from the oversight board.
Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, is the member who raised concerns about having the secretary of DCYF, Tana Senn, able to join the oversight board meetings, or appoint another member of her executive team to join those meetings.
“We may have a meeting where we may not want the secretary there. And having them as a member, we wouldn’t be able to exclude them,” said Dent. “It’s very important to remember why we created this oversight board. We created it because there were some challenges with the children’s administration in DSHS. We started a new agency for that reason.”
Dent said board members already have a DCYF representative on their panel and noted inviting the secretary or her executive staff into their meetings would defeat the purpose of their calling.
“The secretary is a political position, and we want to keep the politics out,” said Dent.
Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, told members the whole reason he joined the DCYF oversight board was to hold the agency accountable for protecting children.
“Putting the secretary on there, it seems like it’s turning into more of a social club than actually something that was designed to help point out the problems and provide oversight,” said Christian. “We’ve got a record number of infant and child mortality death, and we have record lawsuits … I’m not for weakening the board anymore.”
Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, co-chair of the DCYF Oversight Board took issue with Christian calling the board a “social club.”
“A social club would not be how I define this. This is about moving forward and moving ahead and doing what’s right for children and families across our state,” said Wilson.
After another 45 minutes of heated discussion, members voted to remove language in their draft legislation that would have a DCYF representative on the board to include the secretary or her executive staff, agreeing they could always come back and revisit the issue.
Ahead of Wednesday’s DCYF Oversight Board meeting, The Center Square spoke with Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, who will again press lawmakers to pass his bill to protect children in drug-exposed homes.
“I still have House Bill 1092. It’s in the Human Services and Early Learning Committee, and it’s ready for a hearing,” said Couture. “That is the bill that will fix the problem of imminent harm in the statute that is causing us not to be able to remove babies and toddlers from homes where there is hard drug abuse like fentanyl.”
Couture said the bill has bipartisan support.
“I don’t expect the numbers to get better until we pass something like House Bill 1092, unfortunately, and I know that there’s going to be a lot of people who are very interested, [including] foster care, social workers, judges, doctors, you name it, who are going to be fighting for legislation like House Bill 1092 to fix this problem. They’re going to be descending upon Olympia this session,” said Couture.
The 35th District Republican said with all the difficult priorities lawmakers will be facing for the upcoming legislative session, nothing is more important than this.
“It’s hard to fix anything if you can’t even save babies and toddlers from totally savable situations by just removing them from places where fentanyl is being smoked, and so we have to be able to protect our kids. I’m hopeful that we can get something done this session. I am very afraid that Democrats will try to pass something that is extremely watered down and that appears like it does something but actually doesn’t,” said Couture. “Anyone else who says that the system is working right now is flatly in just complete denial of reality, and it’s rhetoric like that which is killing kids in this state. It has to end.”
