In The News

Growing up, Shannon Edwards watched as her mom, a child care provider, was often forced to choose between maintaining her own income and keeping her center affordable for families. Now a preschool teacher herself, Edwards understands how unfair that choice is. Still, providers make it everyday.

Washington is facing two big challenges when it comes to childcare. The first is access to safe and reliable care, and the second is maintaining a strong, stable workforce. Senate Bill 5225 will help solve both.

Washington lawmakers have passed legislation holding the governor’s office accountable for a growing crisis of children warehoused in hospitals awaiting psychiatric care, after a final unanimous Senate vote Wednesday.

Washington lawmakers voted nearly unanimously Friday to strengthen oversight of private special education schools that serve some of the state’s most vulnerable public school students.

The state Senate has passed a bill to remove licensing and background check fees for those entering Washington's childcare workforce. Senate Bill 5316 sponsored by Senator Claire Wilson (D-Auburn) would waive application and background check fees for those applying for childcare jobs.

For every 100 young people aging out of foster care, according to the Department of Children, Youth and Families, 17 of them will end up living on the streets within a year and one in 4 young adults are arrested within a year of aging out. How do we change these statistics and get more of these young people to become ...

Alarmed at the number of special education students shipped away from Washington, state lawmakers and education officials hope to use this legislative session to increase oversight of kids sent out of state, prohibit or limit the use of isolation and restraint, and ultimately find a way to bring those students back home.

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Washington state women leaders at a Seattle Planned Parenthood clinic to sound the alarm about the urgent need to protect the right to abortion and pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), in the wake of news that the Supreme ...

The State Legislature concluded their 60-day lawmaking in Olympia on March 10, with Sine Die, which is Latin for “without a day.” Among those legislators retiring after the 2022 legislative session is Rep. Jesse Johnson (LD30).

The 2022 Washington State Legislature passed several key pieces of legislation, overhauling taxation, protective orders, and updating past law enforcement legislation from the 2021 ...

$50,000 is allocated for constituents to help shape boards and commissions with their lived experiences. Drayton Jackson was homeless for two decades, living in shelters in New York City and, later, Washington state. Over the years, he compiled notes on what it's like to experience homelessness and how policymakers could help, and now he uses that knowledge and experience to lead ...