Fight to close $52M WA school for adults with disabilities is over. What's next?

Yahoo

08-05-2025

A heated debate concerning the future of the Rainier School in Buckley has winded down for now.
On April 27, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 5393, an amended bill that will prohibit new admissions to the Rainier School and to the Yakima Valley School in Selah. The bill will allow current residents to stay at the facilities indefinitely. The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has not approved or vetoed the bill yet.
The Rainier School and Yakima Valley School are two of the state's four residential habilitation centers, which provide housing, employment and care for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
'I think we made the bill infinitely better,' said Josh Penner, a Republican from Orting who represents District 31 in the House. 'I think we created a sense of safety for the residents of Rainier.'
The original Democrat-backed bill would have required the facility to close on June 30, 2027 and prohibit new admissions in the time between the bill's passage and closing. This would have given the state about two years to come up with alternative plans for each of the facility's residents.
Proponents of the original bills pointed to the Rainier School's long history of abuse and believe residents should move from residential habilitation centers to community-based systems of care such as adult family homes, companion homes, group homes or supported living. Opponents believe the Rainier School plays a critical role and say community-based settings do not have the capacity to support those who rely on the centers.
The Rainier School opened in October 1939 and serves people with disabilities by offering 24-hour residential care. This includes housing, medical care, occupational and speech therapies, employment, nutrition services, recreation facilities and more. The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services runs the school.
DSHS previously told The News Tribune the facility has 81 residents and costs roughly $52 million to run each year — or roughly 0.03% of the state's $165 billion budget in 2024. The state's other residential habilitation centers include the Yakima Valley School in Selah, Lakeland Village in Medical Lake and the Fircrest School in Shoreline. The Rainier School and Yakima Valley School are the only facilities impacted by this bill.
If Gov. Ferguson approves the amended bill, the Rainier School won't be able to accept new residents, but will operate until each resident either moves to a different setting or passes away. Each resident will get to choose between staying at the Rainier School, moving to one of the other residential habilitation centers or moving to a community-based setting. If they move to community care and want to come back to the Rainier School within their first year of transferring, they can return.
The News Tribune reached out to a representative for Democratic senators June Robinson and T'wina Nobles — two of the three senators behind the bill — but did not get a response before deadline.
'I think if somebody can be successful in community-based care, it is a superior approach to that person — and I think it's really important to emphasize that there are a number of folks who rely on systems that the RHCs can provide,' Penner said. 'Without those systems, they would be homeless, in jail or in a hospital, physically and chemically restrained.'
Employees at the Rainier School will also be able to keep their jobs, and the bill requires the state to offer them 'opportunities to work in state-operated living alternatives and other state facilities and programs.' DSHS previously told The News Tribune the facility has 460 full-time employees and Courtney Brunell, Buckley's city administrator, previously confirmed that the Rainier School is the largest employer in the city of 5,114 people.
The bill also requires DSHS to submit a report to the legislature once a year, with the first deadline being Dec. 1, 2025. The report must contain the following information:
How many residents are in each of the state's residential habilitation centers.
How many former residents have transitioned out of the Rainier School and where each person ended up.
How many former residents who transitioned out of the Rainier School have since died.
The geographic distribution of residential placements.
Information about 'former Rainier School employees who have transitioned to other state employment, left the industry or transitioned to private sector employment.'
Penner said this report will allow lawmakers to have the information they need to make decisions about residential habilitation centers in the future.
'[The report is about] laying down the feedback systems that are going to help me and other policymakers move forward in a good direction that I think is going to be informed, rather than just kneejerk, 'We have a budget crisis, let's take a shot at RHCs,'' Penner said.
Penner called the original bills 'absolutely cruel policy' and said the Rainier School is essential for providing care.
'There is a place in the continuum of care for facilities in the Rainier School and RHCs, and to just try and shut it down is head-in-the-sand kind of behavior that will get disabled people killed and has gotten them killed,' Penner said.
On April 23, Republicans in the House Appropriations Committee walked out in protest after the senate bill advanced. On March 25, 40 or 50 people attended a 'Save the Rainier School' town hall at the Buckley fire station.
Penner mentioned that, while there has been abuse and neglect at the Rainier School, there has also been abuse in community-based settings.
'You can't get away from this by shutting down facilities — you have to get ahead of this by improving care at all facilities,' Penner said.
The News Tribune reported in 2018 that a former supervisor at the Rainier School was sentenced for sex crimes against residents. In 2020, a resident's family sued the state, alleging the Rainier School staff's neglect following her bunion surgery led to her death in 2017.
When The News Tribune asked Penner how he felt about the bill taking away the Rainier School's ability to admit new residents, he said it wasn't ideal but that it was necessary while Republicans were negotiating to protect current residents.
'Well, sometimes a win is buying time,' Penner said. 'I'm not happy with the fact that admissions [will be] paused at Rainier, but it does allow us time to look into what could be done with that property … and get ahead of the problem.'
Stacy Dym, spokesperson for The Arc, a disability rights organization in Washington, said the bill is progress.
'I think, overall, it is a small step forward for reconsidering and reconsolidating the use of that facility for people with disabilities,' Dym told The News Tribune on Wednesday. 'The use of that facility just doesn't fit in with the future.'
Dym has been an advocate for closing Washington's residential habilitation centers, arguing that community-based care is the more ethical option. She said the updated bill is a push in the right direction, and she disagrees with many of the arguments for keeping the Rainier School open.
'I think that there were some accusations that the community just doesn't offer robust care — over 4,500 people are cared for in supported living every day,' Dym said. 'Washington state is not turning its back on folks that need it.'
In a March interview with The News Tribune, Dym pointed out that Washington is the only state on the west coast that has residential habilitation centers, with 18 states across the country closing the centers completely. She also mentioned the Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton, which she said the legislature closed in 2013 with successful results.
On May 16, 2013, DSHS released a report that said 52 people who had been living at the Frances Haddon Morgan Center found new homes in community-based settings or at one of the state's other residential habilitation centers. It also said those 52 people were 'remain[ing] stable in their new homes.'
Dym has also said residential habilitation centers are relics from a past where people with disabilities were treated poorly.
'I think that supported living and adult family homes offer exactly the same level of care, same level of training,' Dym told The News Tribune on Wednesday. 'We have a robust system of people living in the community, living closer to their families, and so we're making sure that the state plans for serving everyone.'
The News Tribune asked Dym in March if she thought moving residents to community-based facilities was the safer choice. She said that while abuse is always a possibility, residents can experience better care in smaller settings because they have more autonomy and are treated as individuals.
However, Dym does understand the fears that come up when moving out of a residential habilitation center. Her sister was a resident at Fircrest School and in 2003, the legislature ordered the school to be downsized.
'When [my mom] finally found a place that had other individuals my sister's age … that my mom felt was close enough for her to visit and she felt like the home was nice looking and met my sister's need, and she was willing to give it a try — she was really frightened,' Dym said. 'It took her time to build trust in those communities and those community providers.'
Her sister ended up thriving, Dym said, because of the care and freedom that came with the community setting.
'My sister, she got to paint her room purple,' Dym said. 'She got to have a cat, she got to pick out the food she wanted to eat for dinner and lunch, she made new friends, she got a job at the food bank.'
The News Tribune archives contributed to this report.