Rep. Dent's foster parent 'Bill of Rights' signed into law

OLYMPIA — Rights and responsibilities for foster parents will be more clearer now that Gov. Jay Inslee has signed 13th District Rep. Tom Dent’s foster parent “Bill of Rights” into law.

House Bill 2785 will provide an official list of foster parent rights and responsibilities to foster parents. Dent, R-Moses Lake, introduced the bill after meeting with a foster parent group in central Washington and discovering many of the concerns and requests they had were already established in Washington’s foster parent laws.

“The meeting was an eye-opener. We needed to be doing a much better job of informing our foster parents what their rights and responsibilities are in the foster care system,” Dent stated. “I was a foster parent for many years and some of the things we found already in law would have been helpful to me and many other foster parents.”

The bill requires the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to give foster parents a list of rights and responsibilities at their orientation before they are licensed, when they receive their license and when they renew their license. The bill states the list of rights and responsibilities will be updated on an annual basis. Dent said Washington is currently 1,000 foster parents short of “where it needs to be.”

“Our foster care system doesn’t have enough parents and the system has had some challenges. Anything we can do to support or encourage new prospects and those who are still foster parenting is extremely important,” Dent said. “The foster care ‘Bill of Rights’ will assist new foster parents and help those who are already foster parents become more knowledgeable about their rights and responsibilities.”

The measure passed the House and Senate in decisive votes, 97-0 in the House and 48-0 in the Senate, and will go into effect June 7.