Washington House Democrats

This week the House shifts its focus from committee activity to the House floor.  Up until now, most of our time has been spent in committee meetings.  Now, the full House meets to review bills that were voted out of the individual committees.  Once again, that means late nights and long meetings reviewing legislation.

Foster care

I was proud to support several bills this week to improve foster care in Washington. This package will keep children safe, help them flourish while in the state’s care, and then ease their transition out of the system.

With bi-partisan support, we’ll reach our goal to provide safety, stability and success for every foster child. 

Safety: 

We dedicated two of the measures we passed today to foster children who tragically died after being returned home to their parents. 

Sirita Sotelo, a 4-year-old Lake Stevens girl, was beaten to death by her stepmother in 2005 two years after being placed in her father’s home.   

Rafael Gomez was removed three times from his parents’ home in Ephrata by child protection workers who suspected abuse. His mother has been charged with manslaughter in connection with his death in 2003 at the age of 2.

HB 1333 (Sirita’s Law) ensures that parents in dependency cases receive priority access to court-ordered services. The bill also requires background checks and greater scrutiny for all caregivers and any adults living in a home by the Department of Social and Health Services before any child is returned to their custody.

HB 1334 (the Rafael Gomez law), requires DSHS to provide detailed documentation on parents’ substance abuse, mental health treatment and injuries to the child to the court when recommending a child be returned home.

These bills will strengthen the checks and balances the courts and DSHS use to assess a child’s safety and best interest when returning the child to his or her guardian.

Stability:

The House passed two bills to help kids succeed and thrive in foster care.

·         HB 1287 protects the right to be heard in dependency court proceedings for foster care parents and other caregivers. The bill also ensures that DSHS has open and timely access to the education and health records of children entering the dependency process.

·         HB 1716 will bolster efforts for school-based recruitment and retention of foster parents. Doing so will help keep kids in their original school, rather than add to their trauma by being pulled away from their friends and teachers.

Success:

Finally, we passed three bills aiding the transition from foster care to adulthood:

·         HB 1131 - the “Passport to College Promise Act” provides full-tuition scholarships for eligible foster youth up to age 26 and provides financial incentives to colleges and universities to recruit and retain foster youth.

·         HB 1922 creates the Independent Youth Housing Program to provide housing stipends and services for foster youth who have reached age 18.

·         HB 1201 extends medical coverage to foster youth aged 18 to 21 who are dependents of the state.

All seven bills are now on their way to the Senate for their consideration.

Real time floor reports

Now you can follow along with us as we debate bills in the House and Senate.  The House Floor Activity Report is an electronic version of the floor calendar.  It has links to all proposed amendments and bill language.  Here are the links to the House and Senate activity reports.

The following legislations are my bills that have passed the House Floor and are now referred to the Senate