Julie Watts, senior policy adviser at the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families, told the House Human Services, Youth & Early Learning Committee that the agency organizes child-welfare work around prevention and a stepped response to family need.

Watts said DCYF’s prevention framework has three tiers: universal supports (for example, early learning access), targeted secondary prevention such as home‑visiting for high‑risk families, and tertiary prevention that consists of a child-protective services response when there are safety concerns. “Prevention is really what we aim for when it comes to providing child‑welfare services,” Watts said.

The department provides voluntary home‑visiting services delivered by community providers, Watts said, and serves about 3,000 families statewide; roughly 14% of caregivers in the program are under age 20. Watts described the plan of safe care pathway for pregnant people using substances and for substance‑exposed infants, saying the program aims to connect families with community supports so infants can safely return home without formal child‑welfare intervention when appropriate.

Watts described family reconciliation services (FRS), a voluntary service intended to resolve conflicts that might otherwise lead to youth running away or out‑of‑home placement. She said DCYF is pursuing legislation and budget requests to expand community delivery of FRS but that those requests were not included in the governor’s most recent budget due to broader fiscal constraints.

On the investigative side, Watts summarized DCYF screening and response: the department receives roughly 130,000 requests for intervention per year, of which about 118,000 screen in as potential reports and only around 40% of those require a face‑to‑face response (either child protective services or a family assessment response). Watts said only about 2% of all calls result in children being placed out of home. When a case does proceed, DCYF provides in‑person safety assessments and works with families to develop safety plans and case plans.

Watts also outlined the court process for dependency cases (shelter care, fact‑finding, disposition and periodic review), and described statutory placements such as protective custody and the 72‑hour temporary hold that can precede a shelter‑care hearing. She noted that shelter‑care hearings can be continued and that fact‑finding hearings should occur within 90 days but often are delayed by continuances and court backlogs.

The department noted a recent trend toward fewer children in out‑of‑home care: since 2018 Washington has seen a 35.6% decrease in foster‑care entries through 2023, a trend Watts said is consistent with national patterns. Watts also cited the Keeping Families Together Act (effective July 1, 2023) as legislation intended to reduce foster‑care entries and to increase placements with relatives when out‑of‑home care is needed.

Committee members pressed Watts about racial disproportionality. Representative (Ortiz) Sal asked how many families of color access prevention services compared with their rate of screening in; she said the disparity in referrals and system involvement is long‑standing and must be addressed. Watts acknowledged multiple contributing factors—differential referral rates at point of contact, implicit bias within the system, and higher poverty rates in many Black and brown communities—and said the department has trainings and strategies under way. She said she would provide the committee with more detailed materials that DCYF prepared during the interim.

The presentation closed with Watts noting an increase in kinship placements and licensed relatives, which she said allows DCYF to provide foster‑care maintenance payments to support relatives who care for children.

Why it matters: DCYF described a prevention‑first paradigm and provided the committee with numbers that show most interventions do not result in foster‑care placement. Lawmakers pressed the department on equity, service access and how program design and intake affect racial disproportionality.