BILL TO PRIVATIZE CHILD WELFARE SERVICES GENERATES THOUGHTFUL DISCUSSION

The bill to privatize DSHS Child Welfare Services got a polite hearing but firm Federation opposition in a hearing Friday in the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee.

“Legislation compelling that all Child Welfare Services be privatized is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” said Ursula Petters, a social worker 4 in Bremerton and member of Local 1181.

“We support performance-based service delivery, but we can do that with reform within the agency in concert with our community-based partners.”

The sponsor of SB 5943, Sen. Jim Hargrove of the 24th District, said he introduced the measure because, he said, there’s little improvement despite an additional 821 employees over the past 10 years.

“The current system…is dysfunctional,” Hargrove said. “Our trends are going in the wrong direction.”

The problem is insufficient resources everywhere, said Jeanine Livingston, the Federation’s contracting compliance director.

“The underlying theme is that both the public and private sectors are experiencing caseworker burnout, turnover and inadequate recruiting of experienced social workers,” Livingston said.

SB 5943 ignores the experience in other states and several recent studies and task forces in this state.

“This bill fundamentally betrays the very professionals who directly serve some of the most vulnerable citizens of this state by putting them out of work, without benefits or retirement, and dissolves the experience and institutional knowledge of this state’s children and families at a time when such resources are precious and rare,” she said.

A House bill taking a more thoughtful approach gets a hearing next week in the House Early Learning and Children’s Services Committee.