Harger: WA legislature has until Tuesday to protect kids from fentanyl. They probably won’t.

I’m out next week, but I want you to keep an eye on something in Olympia.

In 2023, the legislature passed the Keeping Families Together Act. The intent was good: stop removing kids from homes over poverty, over dirty dishes, over a parent who’s struggling but trying. But cops and caseworkers have taken it to an absurd extreme. A child can test positive for fentanyl, and if the parents promise to do better, that child goes home. The standard is “imminent physical harm.” In practice, that means almost nothing qualifies.

Republican Representative Travis Couture shared an example of what the current system allows.

“Two summers ago, three babies overdosed on the same day in Everett. Not related to the same family. All three different families, all on the same day in Everett. They overdosed,” Couture said. “One died because they were not able to revive it. Two were revived at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and the very next day, they sent those two babies back to the home where there was fentanyl abuse. That’s nuts. That is absolutely nuts. And the idea that if we just lower services down a rope into a dark hole, that all of a sudden the child is safe, they’re not.”

HB 2497, the bill Olympia is likely to pass this session, doubles down. Public health nurses. Better referrals. More court oversight. More legal help for parents. It does nothing to change the standard for when a child can be removed. It does nothing when parents refuse help.

A baby can overdose on fentanyl and go home the next day. The legislature looked at that and decided the real problem is that parents need better lawyers.

Couture’s bill, HB 1092, actually fixes the problem. It’s co-sponsored by Democratic Representative Mari Leavitt. A moderate. A pragmatist. Not someone looking for a fight. If a parent is using hard drugs around a child, removal is presumed to be necessary. Not automatic, but presumed. The parent can make their case, but the burden shifts. Reunification requires six months of documented sobriety. Not promises. Proof.

That bill looks dead. Next Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 5 p.m., is the cutoff for bills to pass out of their chamber of origin. After that, most proposals are done for the year.

I have seen this with my own eyes. I watched a nine-year-old boy live in a fentanyl-infested tent off Aurora Avenue. His parents smoked it with him inside. His mother made him wait in the bushes while she turned tricks with Johns from Aurora. Rotting food. Rats. Bottles of urine. CPS visited. Police visited. Help was offered. It was refused. Everyone said their hands were tied.

That boy is out of the tent now. Not because the system worked. Because this station told the story, and people raised hell.

The legislature has a chance to fix this. Lawmakers from both parties put their names on a bill that would actually do something. Leadership is letting it die anyway. They’re going to pass something that sounds compassionate but changes nothing that matters, and then they’re going to go home and tell their constituents they addressed the problem.

They didn’t. Children will still be in danger. Nothing substantial will be done.

Lawmakers are going to say they fixed the problem. They are going to wait for you to forget. Don’t.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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