Fentanyl-related child welfare bills stall in WA as critical incidents rise
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SB 5071 sought to add synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, to child endangerment law.
- 28 of last year’s 57 child-welfare critical incidents were related to fentanyl.
- Lawmakers press for changes; committee cited time and complexity for delay.
Republican state lawmakers are frustrated after legislation aiming to strengthen state law surrounding fentanyl again failed to advance.
Senate Bill 5071 by Senate Minority Leader John Braun sought to add synthetic opioids including fentanyl to the child endangerment law. Despite passing off the Senate floor on a 40-9 vote, the bipartisan bill did not receive a public hearing in the House before a key deadline.
Braun, a Centralia Republican, said this is the fourth year in a row that a House committee declined to hear the bill.
“The goal isn’t to put people that have this issue behind bars: The goal is to fix the problem,” he said in a call. “And more fundamentally, the goal is to protect the children.”
SB 5071 would have updated the endangerment with a controlled substance statute, which currently makes knowingly exposing children to methamphetamine a Class B felony. Braun said the law was passed in the 2000s when the state faced issues with children exposed to meth.
In recent years, a new problem drug has emerged: fentanyl. State lawmakers have not yet acted to expand that statute.
Rep. Roger Goodman, chair of the House Community Safety Committee, said in a statement that Braun’s bill was not heard because of time constraints.
“This is a very important and complex policy that can benefit from further discussion and collaboration with all parties,” the Kirkland Democrat said. “I look forward to working with Senator Braun and others to address this issue.”
This comes as child fatalities and near-fatalities in the state’s child-welfare system hit record levels in 2025, according to January data published by the Department of Children, Youth and Families. Twenty-eight of the 57 critical incidents were related to fentanyl.
The News Tribune reported on multiple cases last year in which a Pierce County parent was charged after their child died from acute fentanyl toxicity.
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins told reporters Feb. 25 that although she hasn’t reviewed Braun’s proposal, Democrats and Republicans in both chambers share a “very strong interest” in child welfare and safety.
The Tacoma Democrat referenced data showing long-term challenges associated with removing kids from their home.
“I don’t think that we have a disagreement about child welfare and the importance of that,” she said. “We do have disagreements about what are the best strategies to get us there.”
Jinkins added: “It is disappointing to not have been able to figure out a way to navigate that, but I don’t think it will stop us.”
Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, sponsor of 2021’s Keeping Families Together Act, is a school mental health counselor who has witnessed the toll that family separation can have on young people, Cascade PBS reported that year. The Mukilteo Democrat told the outlet at the time that she’s “seen their anguish and trauma … and their desire to be reunified with their families,” which is why removal should be “the absolute last resort.”
Like Braun, Republican Rep. Travis Couture is also feeling frustrated.
Couture’s bipartisan House Bill 1092 did not receive a hearing before cutoff in the Early Learning & Human Services Committee. That proposal sought to clarify that using fentanyl and other hard drugs in homes with kids can “meet the threshold for removal when it creates a serious danger,” a news release notes.
In the Allyn Republican’s view, lawmakers should be open to adjusting laws when data shows disturbing trends.
“It’s not like about taxes or regulations,” he told McClatchy. “This is the life of a child we’re talking about.”
Republicans have largely blamed the Keeping Families Together Act for the surge in critical incidents among kids in the child-welfare system.
The law created stricter standards for removing children from their homes and sought to prevent the trauma of family separations, the Washington State Standard reported last August. Ortiz-Self reportedly still backs the measure and disagrees that it’s at fault for the increase.
“We are all in a state of crisis trying to figure it out,” she said, per the Standard. “The reality is that this is a community problem that we all now have to face.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
.jpg)