Dear Friends and Neighbors,

This week, legislators reached another milestone in the legislative process: Opposite House Cutoff. This is the cutoff date to pass bills that originated from the other chamber. Anything that didn’t pass, aside from bills related to budgets, will have to try again next year. Now, the legislature is moving into the final days of the session. Bills are already being signed into the law by the Governor while lawmakers are negotiating on a few others.

Here are the high impact bills that passed this legislative session:

• SB 5263 – Washington state legislators have taken decisive action to address the financial strain on school districts and the potential harm to students caused by a cap on special education funding. Both chambers of the state legislature have passed Senate Bill(SB) 5263, which will eliminate the enrollment cap that limited the amount of funding districts could receive for special education.
• SB 5253 – The bill seeks to align Washington state law with federal requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by extending special education services for students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which they turn 22 years old.
• SB 5393, HB 1472 – Closing the Yakima Valley and Rainier Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC) that provide services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by June 30, 2027. We believe Washington State must provide a comprehensive continuum of care for individuals with complex support needs. There are individuals with high acuity support needs residing in Rainier Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) and access Yakima Valley RHC for crisis stabilization. Washington State presently doesn’t have the capacity to serve them effectively in the community. But members of both the house and senate human services committees have the oversight and authority to direct the DSHS/DDA to create and expand community based services to transition these individuals safely into safe and stable environments. 
• HB 1432 – Improves access to appropriate mental health and substance use disorder services. Defines medically necessary for purposes of requirements for health plans to provide coverage of mental health services.

Join Our Civic Engagement  And Advocacy Coalition!

Every year we role out our Civic Engagement  And Advocacy Survey! What does that mean?

If you’re an individual with experience in a particular issue area, and you want to be involved in developing legislation, we’re asking for you to share how you’d like to be involved to make it easier to work with you! Please take 3 minutes to fill out our Civic Engagement  And Advocacy Survey!

I know the people who are affected by the work done in Olympia don’t always have a seat at the table when decisions are being made. This will hopefully make it easier for us to include everyone affected when we’re working on a bill idea.

There are options to select areas of expertise (that overlap with legislative committees) and to talk about the mission and goals of our organization (or your own personal advocacy). Please feel free to share this with others who might not get these emails but should be included!

What’s Next?

We are rapidly closing in on the end of the session. In the coming weeks we need to thank our legislators in every district and request for them to meet with us after they’ve had a chance to rest and are back in their home communities.

Keep an eye out for my next update!

All my best,

Arzu Forough