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Republican lawmakers push changes to 'Keeping Families Together' law, fault DCYF after recent child fatalities
Summary
Republican representatives and senators at a press event urged fixes to the Keeping Families Together Act, called for changes to the law's 'imminent harm' language, criticized staffing and practices at the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), and noted a Senate bill to add fentanyl to the child endangerment statute.
OLYMPIA — Republican legislators at a caucus press event said emotional testimony from Rep. Travis Couture highlighted what they described as failures in the Keeping Families Together Act and in the Department of Children, Youth, and Families’ handling of high-risk cases.
"What Travis said yesterday was absolutely correct," Representative Chris Corey said in response to a reporter asking about Couture’s testimony and efforts to remove or change imminent-harm language that family-safety advocates and some legislators say has limited the state's ability to protect children.
Lawmakers argued the current statute and agency practice leave frontline staff unable to remove children from high-risk homes and that many recent critical-incident reports involved children already known to DCYF. "These are kids that were known and documented by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families," one Republican speaker said, adding that fatality reports show named cases and stories, not anonymous numbers.
Senator John Braun said the Senate passed legislation this session to add fentanyl to the child endangerment statute and called for consequences when parents expose children to dangerous substances: "There have to be consequences when parents expose their children, to dangerous chemicals, if we're gonna have a change in behavior." He and other Republican members criticized DCYF for adding managers while losing frontline capacity and said they were not satisfied with responses from Secretary Sen; they offered to share fatality reports and asserted that more legislative action will follow.
Why it matters: Lawmakers said the combination of statutory limits and agency staffing shortfalls is contributing to avoidable child fatalities and near-fatalities. They called for statutory fixes, staffing and procedural changes at DCYF, and additional penalties tied to fentanyl exposure of children.
Reporter access to agency: Carlene Johnson (The Center Square) said she had been unable to secure an interview or statement from Secretary Sen about the agency’s response; lawmakers said they, too, had not received sufficient explanations and cited a January letter Secretary Sen had sent some members of the caucus.
What’s next: Republicans said the current bill discussed in the Senate (referred to in the press event) does not fully fix underlying problems and that the caucus will continue looking for legislative vehicles to address imminent-harm language, staffing and enforcement.
