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Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WA governor signs parental ‘bill of rights' rewrite
Gov. Bob Ferguson hands over one of the pens he used to sign House Bill 1296, the 'students bill of rights' to a child who attended the bill signing. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard) The parental 'bill of rights' overhaul, one of the most divisive bills approved during this year's Washington state legislative session, was signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Tuesday. The legislation stems from Initiative 2081, a citizen initiative lawmakers approved last year that granted certain rights to the parents of public school students under age 18. It allowed parents to easily access school materials, their child's medical records, and promised immediate notification if a child is involved in a crime. Democrats said they would write a 'clean-up bill' if the initiative clashed with other state and federal laws. But Republicans said the law signed Monday goes much further and undermines the initiative, which hundreds of thousands of voters signed on in support of in 2023. The law contains an emergency clause. This will allow it to take effect immediately, and it eliminates the possibility of a referendum that would give voters a chance to weigh in on the law. Democratic lawmakers have said the emergency clause would help provide schools more clarity right away. Republicans criticize it as a ploy to block any referendum effort. Meanwhile, some opponents are already saying they will seek alternative paths to a repeal. Along with parental rights, students' rights are included, such as the right to receive an education in a safe and supportive learning environment, free of harassment and bullying. The law also makes clear that students are free to exercise constitutionally protected rights at school. Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, the lead sponsor of House Bill 1296, said students deserve to have a diverse curriculum that reflects the true history and experiences of people, to be able to experience a school system without discrimination, and that student rights can coexist with parental rights. Ferguson echoed that view during the bill signing. 'The top priority for our schools must be to ensure a safe learning environment where every student has a chance to thrive,' he said. Parts of the earlier parents' rights initiative, such as allowing parents to review school curriculum and textbooks, and requiring school districts to 'immediately' notify parents if a student is a victim of abuse, sexual misconduct, or assault, were kept in the rewrite. A significant change from the initiative was the removal of access to medical records. Democrats have said separating educational and medical records was necessary to prevent confusion. For example, a 1985 law gives children 13 years or older the right to mental health treatment without parental consent. Republican critics of the new legislation argue that the definition of mental health care has expanded over the past 40 years to include gender-affirming care, psychiatric medications and other health services that parents should know about. New parental rights would also be added, including ones for parents to be notified of their child's unexcused absences and to engage in efforts to reduce those absences and to request information about special education programs and determine eligibility. Throughout the session, debates related to the legislation flared over gender inclusivity and diversity, equity and inclusion. Republicans introduced several unsuccessful amendments to prevent transgender girls from participating in girls' sports and entering girls' locker rooms. The law also adds ethnicity, homelessness, immigration or citizenship status, and neurodivergence as protected classes and clarifies protections for sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity. A new complaint process is established as well. This directs the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to investigate complaints if schools fail to comply with state laws in areas like civil rights, nondiscrimination, harassment, and the physical restraint or isolation of students. In cases where districts are found to be willfully disobeying state law, they could see 20% of their state funds withheld and redirected to resolving the issues identified by the state. This option is intended as a last resort. Even so, Republicans view it as too punitive and claim it takes away local control. Let's Go Washington, the group behind Initiative 2081, plans to mount a repeal effort against the new law, according to Hallie Balch, a spokesperson for the group. Balch did not specify whether this might involve a ballot initiative or a new initiative to the Legislature. Unlike a referendum, both of those options would be open to the group. But they would require the collection of nearly 400,000 signatures. The deadline to file initiatives, including required signatures, for the 2025 general election ballot is July 3. Initiatives to the Legislature, for next year's session, can be filed until Jan. 2, 2026.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Washington law directs $100M in grants toward hiring police, improving public safety
The Washington state Capitol on April 18, 2025. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard) On his first day, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson angered many Democratic lawmakers by demanding the Legislature put $100 million in the next state budget to help local police departments hire police officers. 'That idea was a cornerstone of my campaign for Governor. Any budget I sign must include this funding,' he said in his Jan. 15 inaugural address. On Monday, there were clear signs of a rapprochement as Ferguson signed House Bill 2015 that embeds a $100 million grant program in a broad policy bill designed to let local and tribal governments decide how best to use those dollars – even if that means not hiring a single new cop. 'It's a wonderful bill,' Ferguson said, celebrating the political win flanked by Democratic legislators, uniformed officers, and local government leaders. He insisted it will improve public safety and result in more officers on streets across Washington. 'It's going to be a big step forward. I have no doubt about that,' he said. 'Jurisdictions will make their choices, but there's going to be significant investments in new law enforcement officers. I don't think there's any other way to interpret what we did here today.' The measure signed Monday aims to strike a balance by allowing for spending on more than just police hiring, which many Democrats view skeptically as the best path to improve public safety. It allows use of grants to hire and retain not only officers but also peer counselors and behavioral health personnel 'working in co-response to increase community policing and public safety.' Crisis intervention training and other areas, like emergency management planning and community assistance programs, are among the additional spending options. 'This is a good law. Public safety is about the community. This bill is from the community, for the community,' said Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent, the bill's prime sponsor. 'I want police in communities. I want good and fair policing.' Bumpy road Democrats hold near super majorities in the House and Senate. Many of them winced when Ferguson drew a line in the legislative sand in his first speech and winced again when he endorsed the approach in a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Cheney. It remained a sore point all session long as the legislation evolved through many iterations. On April 15, the Members of Color Caucus in the Senate restated their opposition in a letter to Ferguson. 'While we understand your administration intends to move forward with this law enforcement funding request, we ask that you also commit — equally and unequivocally — to meeting the long-neglected needs that disproportionately affect communities of color,' reads the letter signed by a dozen Democratic senators. The message echoed what the Legislative Black Caucus told Ferguson in a January meeting. They said if there was going to be $100 million to beef up the ranks of law enforcement, there should be at least as much to shore up social services and other supportive programs in communities. 'It can't be all cops all the time,' said Rep. Kristine Reeves, D-Federal Way, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, following the meeting. 'We want to invest in public safety. We want to invest in strong and strategic public safety that meets all communities' needs.' Ultimately the bill passed by margins of 55-42 in the House and 30-19 in the Senate. Only five Republican lawmakers, including Holy, supported the bill. Reeves, who did vote for it, stood alongside Ferguson as he signed the bill Monday. 'I don't think every community is going to hire a cop,' she said. 'The whole point of this legislation was, how do we give local communities local control to determine what best suits their public safety needs.' How it works The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission will develop and administer the grant program. As written, the state dollars must be allotted by June 30, 2028. Cities and counties can access the grant money if they've already imposed either of two existing public safety sales taxes. In addition, the bill offers local governments the ability to adopt a new 0.1% sales tax without voter approval to pay for criminal justice expenses. The local sales tax revenue could go toward costs such as public defenders, domestic violence services, and programs to help connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs. Lawmakers also decided governments can't impose the new tax if voters have rejected a similar tax proposal in the past two years. The new law sets other criteria for qualifying for grant dollars. For example, 25% of officers would have to complete a 40-hour crisis intervention training. The bill originally set this benchmark at 80%. Other hurdles departments must clear to access the money include implementing model policies on use-of-force and other issues, completing trauma-informed training for all officers and complying with a law that restricts police from helping with federal immigration enforcement. Ferguson made the grant program a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign because, he said, Washington is ranked last in the nation in police staffing per capita. When asked Monday if this law is enough to move the needle, he said, 'I don't know the answer. It's going to help.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trio of immigrant rights laws signed by WA governor
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a trio of bills on Monday related to protecting immigrants in Washington state. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard) Gov. Bob Ferguson signed three bills to protect immigrant rights this week. These included measures to strengthen state power to inspect private detention facilities, prevent coercion in the workplace, and prohibit bail bond agents from enforcing immigration laws. Lawmakers put forward the legislation at a time when President Donald Trump is trying to crack down on people crossing into the country illegally and as his administration presses to deport immigrants already in the U.S. without legal authorization. Here's a look at what the new state laws would do. State lawmakers have been pushing for greater transparency at the for-profit immigrant detention center in Tacoma. Previous efforts on this front have landed the state in court battles with the for-profit company that operates the facility, The GEO Group. House Bill 1232 is the latest attempt to pave the way for the state's Department of Health to inspect the Northwest ICE Processing Center and enforce compliance with state and federal laws there. It establishes additional standards for such facilities in areas like sanitation, ventilation and medical care, along with new safeguards against abuse. The bill also expands the definition of private detention facilities to include those run by nonprofit organizations after The GEO Group, which runs the Tacoma facility, claimed to be singled out under existing law. The nonprofit Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Facility, near Spokane, will now join the list of these facilities. Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, sponsor of the bill, said she hopes this legislation demonstrates the state is not targeting a single facility. The law is effective immediately. There is often limited recourse for immigrant workers facing threats or being exploited by their employer. Senate Bill 5104, sponsored by Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, intends to give immigrant workers better tools when facing coercion in the workplace. The bill would require the state's Department of Labor and Industries to investigate complaints of coercion and would allow the agency to impose civil penalties when violations occur. Coercion differs from retaliation because it happens before an employee raises an issue. Retaliation happens after the employee does so. During the complaint process, when a worker files a complaint, the department will notify the employer, but language in the bill was added to make a worker's personal information confidential to anyone other than the department and the employee. 'Every Washington worker can and should feel safe to report workplace injustices without fear of coercion or retaliation of any kind,' Ferguson said at the bill signing. The bill would take effect on July 1. Following an incident in January during a public meeting in Sunnyside, a person claiming to be a 'bounty hunter' said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would soon use bail bond agents to arrest people in the U.S. without legal authorization and pay them $1,000 for every arrest. ICE had detained two people in Sunnyside around this time. Senate Bill 5714 would expand the list of unprofessional conduct for bail bond agents to include enforcement of a civil immigration warrant. The Department of Licensing could take disciplinary action against agents found to be in violation. Bail bond agents already largely lacked the authority to get involved in immigration issues. But Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, said she introduced the bill because 'people can operate right on the boundaries.' The law, she said, will provide clarification about those boundaries and the penalties for crossing them. It would also prevent agents from sharing a defendant's immigration status with anyone outside their business. The bill would take effect on July 27. In addition to the laws the governor signed Monday, the Legislature approved a bill to allow immigrants to use paid sick time for immigration proceedings, which Ferguson signed in April, and a bill to have an expedited pardon process for those facing deportation, which is awaiting the governor's signature. Lawmakers also maintained funding in the budget they approved for a state program that provides health care coverage that mirrors Medicaid to a limited number of immigrants without legal status. Ferguson has still not signed off on the budget legislation.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why police accountability efforts failed again in the Washington Legislature
The Washington state Capitol on April 18, 2025. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard) For a second year in a row, Washington police accountability advocates have seen their priorities fall flat in Olympia. They entered this year's session wanting to grant the attorney general stronger oversight of local police departments. They also wanted to create an independent prosecutor to handle cases when police use deadly force; restrict when officers can pull drivers over; block law enforcement from lying during interrogations; and set new standards for police chiefs and sheriffs. None of those proposals will become law this year. None even received votes from either chamber of the Washington Legislature, despite growing Democratic majorities. 'This is the saddest time of my life, because this is the world I have to leave my children,' said Nickeia Hunter, an advocate from the Coalition for Police Accountability, whose brother was killed by police. 'We have to stay on top of fighting for what we started.' It's a far cry from a few years ago when police accountability gained momentum in the Legislature in the wake of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and the social uprising that followed. In the immediate aftermath, lawmakers passed a suite of laws to set additional guardrails for police. This included restricting when they could pursue people suspected of crimes — a move that drew such staunch pushback, lawmakers rolled back the policy last year. They also banned police from using chokeholds, created a statewide use of force database and established a first-of-its-kind Office of Independent Investigations to look into deadly force cases. Legislators' biggest move on policing this year was acquiescing to Gov. Bob Ferguson's ask for $100 million to hire more officers, a request that drew frustration from many progressive Democrats. Steve Strachan, the executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, noted that officials are still waiting to see how some of the big changes made in 2021 are playing out and called the shift since then 'a more balanced approach.' The difficult budget year also acted as a buzzsaw that sheared away police accountability bills that would've cost money. Meanwhile, fears of rising crime have emboldened opposition to policies believed to hinder officers trying to do their jobs. In 2023, the last year with available statewide data, the state saw a significant decrease in year-over-year violent crimes after years of increases, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. More broadly, this has all powered a pendulum swing in the establishment conversation from fixing policing to helping police. 'Increased accountability helps everyone be able to do their job well, and to make sure that they have the supports and the infrastructure in place to do their job well,' said Rep. Darya Farivar, a Seattle Democrat and leading police accountability proponent in the Legislature. 'It is, frankly, a little confusing to me why some folks don't seem to understand that.' A new sheriff in town Ferguson's rhetoric in his first few months in office played a part in the paradigm shift this year. Starting on the campaign trail and in his inaugural address, the new Democratic governor, who supported police accountability efforts while attorney general, was steadfast in his request for a new $100 million grant program to bring on more law enforcement officers. He hopes the money will turn the tide on Washington's long-held last-place ranking nationwide in police staffing per capita. After not including the funding in their initial proposals, Democrats relented under threat of veto to include it in the final budget that's now on the governor's desk. This sucked away some money that could've been used for police oversight measures, said Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma. Strachan said that the funding tracks with the public's priorities. 'There's a general consensus, I think, among a lot of residents in our state, that, yes, we want to make sure that law enforcement is doing a good job and is being fair and transparent, but also that we need more officers and we need to support public safety,' he said. Departments can use the $100 million for more than just officers on the beat. Under House Bill 2015, the money can also go toward peer counselors, behavioral health co-responders, training and other broader public safety efforts. While Republicans generally supported the idea behind the grant program, many of them believe Washington's police staffing difficulties are caused more by the state's perceived hostility toward law enforcement than anything else. The money also comes with strings. To access grant funding, for example, cities and counties need to either implement a new 0.1% sales tax for public safety or have already imposed a similar tax. They also need to follow state model policies as well as collect and report use of force data. In a statement, Ferguson said increasing hiring and adopting police accountability measures 'are not mutually exclusive.' 'They can, and should, go hand in hand,' the governor said. 'For example, HB 2015 creates a $100 million grant program to hire more law enforcement officers and contains strong accountability conditions for agencies that will receive the grants.' Ferguson has not yet approved the final budget or House Bill 2015. He has a couple weeks to do so. Looking forward Trudeau hopes once local law enforcement can address the staffing issue, the discussion can turn back to accountability. Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, plans to spend the interim before next year's legislative session meeting with police officials. He wants to mend the relationship between Olympia and on-the-ground law enforcement. 'It's, I believe, incumbent on me to do some repair work with the police community, because it's been a pretty aggressive effort, all well meaning and I think good policy, but it needs to be done in a more collaborative fashion,' said Goodman, the chair of the House Community Safety Committee. Hunter, with the Coalition for Police Accountability, described the path forward as 'bleak.' 'But we'll be damned if we sit down and be like, 'Oh, we're just going to have to have to accept it,'' she said. With a short, 60-day legislative session in 2026, she isn't hopeful for major gains. But she and others plan to keep telling their stories in hopes of convincing people about the importance of the issue.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Candidate filing begins for 9 Washington state legislative seats
The Washington state Capitol on April 18, 2025. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard) The curtain is officially rising on Washington's 2025 election season. Candidates can begin filing at 8 a.m. Monday for more than 3,200 seats on city councils, county commissions, school boards, and special districts. They must turn in declarations and pay any fees by 5 p.m. Friday. There are contests for nine Democrat-held legislative seats. Eight involve lawmakers appointed for the just-completed session who are seeking to stay in office. Winners will serve through 2026. One race is to fill the vacancy created by the death of Democratic state Sen. Bill Ramos in April. The victor in November will serve the remaining three years of the term. Here's where things stand as filing gets underway. 26th District: Sen. Deb Krishnadasan, a Gig Harbor Democrat, wants to keep the seat she was appointed to after the district's former state senator, Emily Randall, was elected to Congress. The district covers parts of Kitsap and Pierce Counties. Republican state Rep. Michelle Caldier of Gig Harbor is the lone GOP challenger to emerge so far. 33rd District: Sen. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, served in the state House until she was chosen to succeed Sen. Karen Keiser, who retired. Orwall was the only candidate with a campaign committee as of Friday. The district includes Burien, Normandy Park, Des Moines, SeaTac, and much of Kent. 34th District: Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, moved from the House to the Senate to replace Joe Nguyen when Gov. Bob Ferguson named him to lead the state Department of Commerce. The district includes West Seattle, Vashon Island, White Center, and part of Burien. 48th District: Sen. Vandana Slatter, D-Bellevue, served in the House until being appointed to succeed Patty Kuderer, following her election as Washington's insurance commissioner. Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, who also sought the appointment, is challenging her former seatmate. The district covers communities in Redmond, Bellevue and Kirkland. 5th District: No one had publicly announced their candidacy as of Sunday. Meanwhile, a Democrat will be appointed to serve in the office through the election. That process is expected to get underway this month. The district covers Issaquah, Black Diamond, Covington, and part of Snoqualmie. 33rd District: Rep. Edwin Obras, D-SeaTac, was appointed to fill Orwall's House seat. Kevin Schilling, a Democrat and the mayor of Burien, is gearing up to challenge him. 34th District: Rep. Brianna Thomas, D-West Seattle, was tapped to succeed Alvarado in the House. 41st District: Rep. Janice Zahn, D-Bellevue, was appointed to replace Tana Senn who resigned to join Ferguson's administration as secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The district includes Mercer Island, Newcastle and part of Bellevue. 48th District: Rep. Osman Salahuddin, D-Redmond, was chosen to replace Slatter.
