The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), in consultation with the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Children, Youth and Families, is directed by statute to compile an annual report providing information about cases that fail to meet statutory guidelines to achieve permanency for dependent children. This report is submitted to the Legislature and a representative of the Foster Parent Association of Washington State on December 1st of each year.
The annual report also includes information about:
Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the AOC is to, in consultation with others, identify measures of relational permanency and child well-being and shall report to the Legislature by July 1, 2025, in compliance with state law, the following information:
In making these determinations, the AOC must consult with representatives who have knowledge of data collection systems from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI); the Health Care Authority (HCA); the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF); the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS); the Department of Corrections (DOC): tribal data experts; and any other entity holding relevant data or expertise.
To collect data necessary to evaluate the relational permanency and well-being of dependent children, the AOC must execute data-sharing agreements with OSPI, HCA, DCYF, DOC, and DSHS.
The committee recommended a different version of the bill than what was heard. PRO: There may have been years of ineffective policies, but being able to look at the data, we're able to make effective policy decisions going forward, with more transparency. Right now the only measure of success is whether a dependency meets the statutory deadline but that doesn't tell us how the child is doing, how many schools they have attended. Since 2007 the AOC has been collecting this data which is also shared online but AOC lacks access to important data that this bill will help them get access to. Children are languishing in the system. Data will help us understand how they are doing, what kind of relationships they are developing, and it sends a message to courts that we want to be looking at more than the length of time in care. Having better data will help improve the foster care system. We should include data about incarceration rates - how many children in dependency have incarcerated parents.
OTHER: The data is helpful because it's important to look at what's going on in DCYF.
The committee recommended a different version of the bill than what was heard. PRO: This bill allows the data sharing agreement to get at the accuracy of the data analysis which we need. AOC and stakeholders worked with us on this in the last few weeks.
Strong support. In 2007, the Legislature directed AOC to measure the timeliness in dependencies. Still valuable, yet is not all we need to know. How are youth actually doing? This bill helps answer that question and is a great investment.
We need to evaluate whether the dependency system is servicing children well. The court system has a critical role and the ultimate authority. This bill provides guidance to AOC and no longer limits reporting to only time metrics.
AOC works with DCYF on timeliness data, yet we lack data on services, family time visits, connections to siblings, school outcomes, and other data relevant to measuring relational permanency and well-being.
AOC will need a full-time manager for this. It is important that all agencies have a good understanding of dependency outcomes and we be fully transparent and accountable.