Opinion: Washington DCYF Kids Dying

Occasionally, we will link to media opinions on aspects of adoption and child welfare that you may never have thought about. This opinion piece (surprisingly)discusses why soooo many kids have died under Washington’s DCYF program… ya see… whenever I post a lawsuit about Washington state, I take note… because like almost half of the lawsuits are from Washington state.

“When record numbers of children die or suffer near-fatal injuries at the hands of their parents, alarm bells should sound. Loudly. Especially when those kids were already on the state’s radar as potentially unsafe.

That’s exactly what’s happened in Washington over the last two years. So, it behooves lawmakers to take a hard look at the Department of Children, Youth & Families, whose primary mission is keeping kids safe.

Last month, all 19 Senate Republicans signed a letter asking the Democratic leadership for such an inquiry. There is particular urgency, they noted, in light of the enormous legal settlements being paid out by DCYF for past failures.

Sen. Claire Wilson, a Democrat who chairs both the Human Services Committee and the DCYF Oversight Board, dismissed the request. The problem, she said, is less about practice within the child welfare agency and more about a dearth of help for parents struggling with addiction.[Blah Blah Blah!]

“It’s hard to hold people accountable when the services and support aren’t there,” Wilson said in an interview.

That’s not what the child fatality reports show. Again and again, drug-addicted parents were offered treatment and refused it, or relapsed, or failed to follow through. Wilson should do some homework and reconsider.

More to the point, children’s lives can’t be hostage to a ledger sheet.[Amen! 🙇🙏]

Washington is indeed facing dire budget realities, and if drug treatment isn’t readily available it’s more important than ever to adjust protocols at DCYF. Perhaps by taking more kids into foster care, or at least by providing better oversight while they remain with their families.

Yet the opposite seems to be happening. Court filings to make kids legally dependent on the state have plunged 35% since 2021, when the Legislature passed its Keeping Families Together Act to shrink foster care.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are powerful reasons to keep children out of that system. But the point is to do it safely, and Washington is failing that test. The evidence? Some 200 dead and severely injured children known to DCYF since 2023, more than the state has seen in a decade, or longer.

Tana Senn, secretary of the agency, has deflected questions about a child welfare crisis, preferring instead to blame fentanyl for the shocking spike in critical incidents — a 67% increase between 2020 and 2024.

But fentanyl is not the only culprit. Some children have been tortured. Or starved. Or accidentally suffocated.

One pattern unites them all: multiple referrals to Child Protective Services. One family was reported 85 times between 2012 and 2025, before their youngest, an infant, died.”

Stop dodging and face facts: More kids are dying on DCYF’s watch
[Seattle Times 1/12/26]

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