Spokane juvenile court says BECCA funding cut will end case management for 300 youths

Tori Peterson, director of Spokane County Juvenile Court Services, told the regional SCRIBE meeting that a state reduction to BECCA-related funding will sharply curtail local case management for truant and at‑risk youth.

"This funding ends July 1...greatly reduced, reduced by 70%," Peterson said, describing a cut that reduced statewide BECCA funding from about $7 million to $2 million and removed roughly $1.3 million that had been coming to Spokane. The reduction, she said, will mean Spokane can no longer provide case management for many of the approximately 300 youths currently receiving those services.

Why it matters: Peterson said the BECCA framework was designed to catch youth who fall through the usual systems — truancy accounted for the large majority of filings under the law — and that local case managers perform barrier removal and wraparound engagement that schools cannot provide alone. She cited Department of Justice research cited in the meeting stating that students who miss 10% or more of school are far more likely to drop out, and she noted long-term social and economic costs tied to dropouts.

Peterson described how the court’s case managers work in the community, using motivational interviewing and trauma‑informed approaches to connect youth to housing, behavioral-health care, basic needs and other services. She said roughly 75–80% of truancy filings in Spokane do not require courtroom appearances because school‑based interventions resolve them; the remaining 20% are higher‑risk cases that rely on court case management.

Spokane County officials said the county has provided one‑time funding (described in the meeting as VOCC support) to bridge services through the summer so staff can help youth during critical school transitions, but Peterson said that is a temporary stopgap. County leaders said they will continue advocating at the state level and pursue creative local solutions, but Peterson warned that without state funding the community will rely more heavily on schools and other partners that may not have capacity to replace intensive outreach.

The remarks were discussion and advocacy; no formal policy action was taken by the SCRIBE forum. Peterson urged counties and regional partners to raise awareness and to work with state lawmakers to restore or replace funding before the July 1 change.