The Everett field office received four perfect scores during their recent case review.
Everett rated higher than the state average on items 1 through 16. Permanency outcomes were also exceptional. Eight additional reviews had two or less areas needing improvement.
The Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is working with communities across the state to gather and summarize existing information, data and experiences to create a statewide early learning needs assessment. This will help us identify where the current system has opportunities for improvement as well as areas of success and promise.
The Department of Commerce has released the 2019-21 Early Learning Facilities (ELF) program grant guidelines for eligible organizations who currently provide Working Connections Child Care (WCCC
Each year, thousands of foster and kinship families open their hearts and homes to our state’s most vulnerable children. There are nearly 9,200 children in Washington who are in out-of-home placements. This number has been climbing slowly every year as we work through the opioid epidemic and the aftermath of the great recession.
Dozens of foster families received free school supplies during a foster care picnic last week at the Tumwater Historical Park.
The DCYF event featured food, an activity set up by the Hands On Children’s Museum of Olympia and free school supplies donated by various community partners.
Each month, I will be sharing news about the work of our agency as well as creating a feedback resource for our external partners.
I invite you to subscribe to our monthly stakeholder newsletter and share this resource with others.
Hundreds of youth, community partners, DCYF leadership and staff attended the 14th Annual Mockingbird Society Youth Leadership Summit last week.
The event, held in Seattle, allowed youth from all over the state to identify challenges or barriers and propose solutions to issues foster and homeless youth currently face.
Update: The DCYF Kelso Office was reopened on Wednesday, Aug. 14.
The DCYF Kelso office, located at 711 Vine, Ste 2, is closed today due to repairs. If you need assistance with reporting abuse, neglect or child care concerns, please call 1-866-764-2233.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
One of the biggest problems our child welfare system has is how to care for children who are severely traumatized and have mental health or physical issues that make it difficult for a typical foster family to care for them. We don’t have enough “beds” in therapeutic group homes for the children who need that level of care, resulting in many pathologies in the system.
The Early Start Act of 2015 mandated that the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) update the child care licensing rules so that the early learning system has a unified set of foundational health, safety and child development regulations that are easy to understand.