Governor seeks to improve children's services

OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee signed an executive order Thursday to create a commission focused on creating a new agency for child welfare.

“Today we do not have a department that is specifically designated to the aspirations of our children,” said Inslee, while surrounded by young children and their parents.

Inslee said he felt a separate department is needed to allow for greater accountability, more visibility of children’s issues and reduced barriers to services.

Inslee said that while he was originally skeptical of the idea, he decided it is the right course of action after reviewing other cities and states that have created a separate department for children’s services.

Currently, the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) works with children’s issues such as reporting child abuse, healthcare, foster services, and adoption. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) focuses on promoting and supporting learning for children before kindergarten.

Inslee said his desire to create a new agency is not based on a lack of results for DSHS or DEL.

“I don’t think that this, at all, is seen as some deficiency in the present; it’s just we have aspirations for these kids to have someone to advocate for them full time,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said in a response to the announcement, there are problems with how DSHS is currently managed.

“It is completely unacceptable that so many children are being victimized twice: once by abusers and then again because of incompetence on the part of the agency that is supposed to be protecting them,” Schoesler said in a statement.

He said a new agency may begin to address current problems if it has “the most effective management systems in place.”

In 2005, the Senate approved a bill sponsored by Senate Republications to create a task force that recommended a separate department is made to help children and families, according to Schoesler.

Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Seattle, spoke in favor of the order. Kagi also expressed that she previously felt skeptical about creating a new department for this issue. However, she said after seeing the progress made by the Early Learning Department, she believes that broadening the focus in a separate department would be beneficial.

“I’m excited about this proposal; I think it will keep Washington in a leadership position,” Kagi said.

The Blue Ribbon Commission for the Delivery of Services to Children and Families will be tasked with providing recommendations on establishing the new agency. The commission’s report will be due to the governor on Nov. 1.

An example of a problem Inslee hopes the new agency would address is the large number of children in the criminal justice system who are not getting the services they need, he said.

Bobbe Bridge, retired state Supreme Court justice and founder of the Center for Children and Youth Justice, also spoke in favor of the action.

“With this executive order we now have an opportunity to hear the voice of children and youth, to be guided by them and their families,” Bridge said.

Inslee did not know the cost of the commission, and one of the duties of the commission will be to determine the cost of creating the new agency.

“When this department is fully in place, no children will be crying,” said Inslee during the press conference, over the sound of a child crying in the background.