Legislative Agenda

Driver’s licenses are a rite of passage for any young adult and empowers them to engage in school experiences and work opportunities that they may not otherwise have access to. The cost of a permit, driver’s education and a driver’s license can exceed $700, and many young adults and foster parents cannot afford this expense. Auto insurance also adds monthly costs. If a youth drives without a license and gets into an accident or is pulled over, it can start a cascade of criminal and financial crises.

In 2017, the Washington State Legislature funded a program to help youth in foster care ages 15-21 with the fees associated with this important milestone. Included in the state transportation budget, the program is administered by Treehouse. Washington state is now one of only two states in the nation with a model driver’s program for youth in foster care.

Our Ask

Allocate an additional $1.15 million for youth in foster care to obtain their driver’s license and auto insurance coverage, allowing them to get to school and work reliably and safely.

Washington state has a number of programs and laws to support students in foster care. However, varying definitions create access barriers and confusion, often leading to groups of students being excluded from the education services designed to support them. Statute changes are needed to resolve these barriers and ensure all students experiencing foster care have legal access to the services that will support their education stability and outcomes.

Our Ask

• Align definitions of foster care and school transportation requirements (HB 1955)
• Add a DCYF Oversight Board representative with expertise in education outcomes for youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems (HB 1665)

During the pandemic, young adults who have experienced foster care were among the first to experience food instability, housing instability and child care loss.

The Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) contracted with Treehouse to disperse approximately $1.65 million of one-time federal relief dollars to eligible young people through direct cash payments. More than 670 young people received this financial assistance for a wide variety of needs, including anything related to housing, food, education, employment, utilities, transportation and more. However, these federally extended supports expired on September 30, 2021.

Our Ask

Allocate $10.6 million of federal relief dollars to provide continued economic and housing stability to young people who aged out of Extended Foster Care during the pandemic.

Students in foster care interact with many adults — foster parents, social workers, teachers, school counselors and mentors — in their educational journey. This network is critical in providing students with timely resources and services. However, capacity constraints and breakdowns in communication make it considerably harder for these adults to effectively support them.

Some examples of these communication breakdowns impact youth:

• Youth do not receive legally required special education supports when the transfer of documents between schools is delayed.
• Youth are not connected to essential supports when adults have inconsistent information about the services available.
• Youth who have recently changed schools miss school days if transportation forms are not submitted to school district staff.

Our Ask

• Allocate resources for DCYF’s Adolescent Services division to provide technical assistance, training, and data support to DCYF regions.
• Allocate resources for OSPI to support district foster care liaisons and school building points of contact.

• Provide a robust service array to ensure young people do not exit state systems of care into homelessness.
• Seal and expunge most juvenile records.
• Improve special education funding and support.