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DCYF seeks staff for rising tort claim workload and asks for licensing and reporting statute cleanups
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Summary
DCYF proposed 25 litigation staff and funding to handle a surge in civil tort claims, and requested several statutory fixes to child-welfare licensing and a reduction in duplicative reporting requirements.
DCYF said it has experienced a recent surge in civil tort claims and requested a decision package to hire 25 staff to process records, support claim management, coordinate witnesses and manage discovery, with a biennial cost of $6,400,000.
Deputy CFO Brianne Boggs said the number of tort claims rose from 252 two years ago to 1,454 in fiscal year 2025, driven by changes in state law and Supreme Court decisions that increased litigation volume.
Julie Watts described proposed statutory cleanups in child-welfare licensing intended to reduce administrative burden and clarify eligibility. Provisions in the proposed bill include making kinship caregivers receiving interstate compact placements eligible for child-specific licenses; removing a requirement for bloodborne-pathogens training for kinship caregivers (where the agency said it is not necessary for all placements); clarifying whether licensed physicians and lawyers are exempt from licensing requirements; allowing DCYF to mark long-inactive foster home licenses as inactive; updating staffing-ratio rules for crisis residential centers; and removing duplicative mandated health-and-safety visits and comprehensive reviews at the Washington School for the Deaf to avoid redundancy with the school’s accreditation process.
The agency also seeks to reduce or remove certain legislatively mandated reports that DCYF staff judge duplicative or available through public dashboards, in order to reduce staff workload. DCYF said it will work with impacted communities and write rules to implement statutory changes where needed.
