Lawmakers take up the fight

OLYMPIA – Child abuse, neglect and foster care were much on the minds of Washington lawmakers this year, and they approved several changes that advocates long have urged.

Among those changes: giving a voice to children who may be split from their parents, improving child-fatality investigations and allowing some relatives to visit foster kids.

Olympia’s budget writers also approved several million dollars for siblings in separate foster homes to visit each other, more training for abuse investigators and more social workers for monthly visits to foster children.

“From our perspective, this was a really good budget for child welfare and foster care,” said Sarah Cherin, a lobbyist for the Children’s Alliance. “This year I think that the Legislature did pay attention to these issues.”

Here’s a look at some of what lawmakers did:

“Senate Bill 6792: When a child is taken away from his or her parents, this bill would make it easier for the child to petition a court to reunify the family. It lowers the standard by which a judge would allow the child to return and mandates that if things go well for 6 months, the court will restore the parents’ rights.

In Spokane and three other counties, the bill also makes it easier for children 12 or older who are at risk of being taken from their parents to attend – and be heard – at court hearings. Children should have a say in such a life-affecting decision, said Mary Meinig, the state’s Family and Children’s Ombudsman. The court’s decisions, she told lawmakers this session, “influence a child’s hope for the future and shape the kind of person they will become.”

The bill is waiting to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

“Senate Bill 6206 is an attempt to eliminate some “blind spots” in child welfare cases, particularly those involving the death of a child.

Under current law, the state must launch a public “child fatality review” if a state-monitored child dies unexpectedly. SB 6206 tightens up the procedure, banning people involved with the case from being on the review committee and requiring that the reports be published on the Internet.

It would also require annual reports to the Legislature on whether social workers are making the changes recommended in previous child fatality reviews.

The bill is awaiting Gregoire’s signature.

“Senate Bill 6306: Under this bill, also waiting to be signed into law by the governor, relatives of children removed from their homes could petition a judge for visitation. But the visits would have to be judged to be in the best interest of the child.

“Several proposals aimed at abused children and foster kids were also tucked away in the state budget. Lawmakers approved $2.4 million to help pay for twice-monthly visits between siblings living in different foster homes, for example. It also includes more than $1 million to hire more social workers for monthly visits with children in foster care or living with their parents under state supervision.

Community sexual-assault programs will get an extra $600,000 to treat child victims, and $150,000 more was set aside for training of state investigators of child deaths, assault, abuse and neglect, and $800,000 for more health and education screeners for children under state scrutiny.