It’s officially summer in the Pacific Northwest, which also means the start of a new state fiscal year (started on July 1). Given that, it feels like a great time to provide a 2022 legislative session recap!
It was a big year for budget and policy wins that will impact young people, especially young people leaving public systems of care like foster care, behavioral health, and juvenile rehabilitation.
Here are some legislative victories that LCYC supported and contributed to—through public testimony, advocacy letters and emails, and coalition partnerships—last session:
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Senate Bill 5788 made changes to the recently implemented Minor Guardianship provisions of the Uniform Guardianship Act. The bill will remove barriers for youth and caregivers who seek court intervention for a minor to access a safe out-of-home placement. The bill also requires courts to look at a person’s ability—not just their authority and willingness—to keep a minor safe if they present themselves to take care of the minor.
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Senate Bill 5883 authorizes unaccompanied homeless youth to provide informed consent for their own health care, including nonemergency, outpatient, and primary care services. Other laws allow unaccompanied homeless minors to access various types of healthcare, but preventative care and nonemergency services have always faced an extra barrier regarding parent or legal guardian consent. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for unaccompanied homeless minors to be able to consent for things like COVID tests and vaccines, as well as general nonemergency healthcare.
Elizabeth, a 15-year-old LCYC client, provided powerful testimony about challenges she faced as an unaccompanied minor while trying to obtain preventative medical care. You can check out her testimony in the Senate (starting at 30:30).
More information about this bill can be found at Building Changes. -
House Bill 1905 bolsters Washington’s commitment to not discharge youth and young adults from public systems of care into homelessness (Senate Bill 6560 (2018). The bill was accompanied by $4.434 million in funding and has four components, including:
- Expanding the Office of Homeless Youth’s System of Care grant program to fund community-based services that prevent youth from exiting a publicly funded system of care into homelessness.
- Creating a Rapid Response Team, which will include representatives from relevant state agencies to respond to complex cases involving a youth exiting a publicly funded system of care.
- Providing flexible funding to individual youth exiting systems of care.
- Funding six counties to implement the Housing Stability for Youth in Courts (HSYNC) model to prevent exits to homelessness from county juvenile detention facilities. -
House Bill 1961 authorizes courts to waive auditor’s fees related to name change orders. LCYC works with a lot of young people, especially transgender young people, who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness and who want to pursue a name change. Over the past year, LCYC elevated the concern that courts had varying practices regarding fee waivers for low-income petitioners.
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$10.6 million funding was provided for monthly stipends for young people who have aged out or will age out of Extended Foster Care between March 1st, 2020, and June 30th, 2023. This state funding will provide a financial bridge for young adults who turned 21 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and whose economic, housing, and educational situations have been significantly disrupted during an already challenging time of transition from foster care.
In addition to the 2022 session victories, LCYC is engaged in implementation work for previously passed bills, particularly around House Bill 1219, which will provide legal counsel to dependent children and youth across Washington State. The bill has a 6-year phased implementation process and LCYC staff are members of a Standards of Children’s Representation Workgroup that is re-examining caseload, training, and practice standards for attorneys who will represent children and youth.
Even though the next legislative session doesn’t start until next January, LCYC is already deeply engaged with our team and external partners on what advocacy priorities to pursue during the 2023 legislative session. Stay tuned for more updates!
If you want to learn more about our systemic advocacy work this session or how you can get engaged and provide remote testimony on a bill you care about, please contact LCYC’s Director of Policy & Systemic Advocacy, Erin Shea McCann: esmccann@lcycwa.org.