The leader of Washington’s child welfare agency said the department was forced to end its contract with a pediatric care facility in Kent due to reduced funding in the upcoming state budget, even as the number of children involved in welfare cases who died or nearly died has surged.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, seven children whose cases were under review by the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families died and 20 children nearly died. The 27 “critical incidents” were triple the total the department recorded for the first three months of last year, DCYF Secretary Tana Senn said during a virtual news conference Friday.
More than half of the 27 incidents were related to opioids, including 13 of the 15 cases involving children under 3. During the same time last year, only six cases involved children that young, and five of those involved opioids, Senn said…