As part of the agency’s commitment to promoting safety and trauma-informed environments, Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR) is implementing Advanced Crisis Intervention Training (ACIT). ACIT is the only crisis intervention certification available from a professional mental health association for responding to anger, aggression, and violence.

Hosted by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) and the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN), October is Youth Justice Action Month (YJAM) – a month where advocates come together to organize events and online activities to raise awareness and inspire action on behalf of young people impacted by the justice

Several grant opportunities are currently available through DCYF to support child care providers and the child care workforce:

Families residing in Washington State may be eligible for child care subsidy to help pay for child care. Child care subsidies help pay for child care while the parent, or parents in a two-parent household, participate in an approved activity.

Green Hill School youth participants in the Emerging Leaders Committee (ELC) were recently interviewed by a White House representative on policy recommendations for President Biden on juvenile justice and reentry issues.

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families continues to provide services to the Forks community as the agency searches for a new office location. 

Fall is in the air, and we’re kicking off September with School Attendance Awareness Month. Did you know that missing 10% of school days for any reason can translate into having difficulty learning to read by third grade, achieving in middle school years, and graduating from high school? Just two absences per month are enough to dramatically impact academic success.

Assistant Secretary of Juvenile Rehabilitation Felice Upton was recently invited to become a member of the Juvenile Justice Leadership Network.

Today, Washington State stopped forcing parents involved in the child welfare system to pay the state for the costs of caring for their child in foster care. Credible studies show that doing so often results in children lingering in foster care, causing needless damage to the child and costing taxpayers more than is likely to be collected.