Out of options and running out of time, Reps. Travis Couture and Joshua Penner are calling on Democrats to bring an emergency fix to the Keeping Families Together Act to the House floor before session ends.
Child fatality reviews continue to document babies and toddlers exposed to fentanyl in homes the state had already investigated, raising urgent questions about Washington’s “imminent physical harm” standard and whether it allows intervention before tragedy strikes.
“For three years, the majority has blocked my bill to fix the ‘imminent physical harm’ standard in the 2021 law that made it nearly impossible to remove kids from homes filled with fentanyl and other hard drugs,” said Couture, R-Allyn. “Every year, I have warned that children would keep dying from fentanyl exposure because Olympia refused to act. Every year, that prediction has come true. That stain belongs to this Legislature. It’s time to reset our priorities and keep these kids alive.”
Couture said the warnings have not been subtle. They have been repeated, documented, and heartbreaking.
“We are not talking about gray areas or technicalities,” Couture added. “We are talking about infants with fentanyl in their systems. Toddlers revived with Narcan. Caseworkers who know a home is unsafe but feel their hands are tied. This is not a misunderstanding of the law. It is a failure to fix it.”
Penner, a member of the House Early Learning and Human Services Committee, said what he is hearing from foster parents, medical providers, therapists, kinship caregivers, and even social workers points to a system operating under a dangerous standard.
“Right now, in Washington, we are often waiting for a child to suffer catastrophic injury before we intervene,” Penner, R-Orting, said. “That is not compassion. That is paralysis disguised as policy.”
Penner pointed to testimony from pediatric providers describing near-fatal fentanyl ingestions and permanent brain damage, foster parents recounting repeated reunifications without sobriety requirements, and frontline workers describing a “yo-yo” effect where children are removed, returned too quickly, and removed again after further trauma.
“I have read stories. I have heard from the grandparents who were told to stay quiet. From the foster parents threatened for speaking up. From doctors who cannot even get a call back on the End Harm Line,” Penner noted. “We are asking people to look the other way while children are left in homes saturated with drugs. That is not family preservation. That is state-sanctioned risk.”
With leadership refusing to schedule the bill, Couture and Penner forced the issue.
In mid-February, Couture used a rare procedural move to force a vote on a package of child safety bills designed to break the legal paralysis facing caseworkers and judges. The package would:
During Saturday’s House budget debate, Penner and Couture led Republicans in a searing floor debate over an amendment to fund Couture’s bill, House Bill 1092. Democrats were forced to sit and listen as lawmakers read graphic details from official child fatality reviews – babies and toddlers exposed to fentanyl in homes the state knew were dangerous.
• Define “Imminent Harm” Clearly: Make explicit in statute that the presence of high-potency synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, qualifies as imminent danger requiring intervention.
• Restore Authority to Act: Remove the legal ambiguity that leaves judges and social workers hesitant to remove children from drug-saturated homes.
• Shut the 72-Hour Revolving Door: Prevent children removed from lethal environments from being sent back into the same danger within days because of technical loopholes.
Seven Democrats broke ranks and voted yes. The amendment still failed, 44-49.
“This is not theoretical,” Couture said. “We have the reviews. We have autopsies. We have the timelines showing the state knew there was danger. The only question left is how many more warnings we are willing to ignore.”
In just the past two years, more than 100 children, most of them babies and toddlers, have died or nearly died after exposure to fentanyl in homes tied to this policy. If the majority refuses to allow a vote on a fix before session ends, responsibility for what happens next will rest squarely with them.
Washington now operates under one of the highest removal thresholds in the country, even as critical injuries and fatalities have climbed beyond national trends, a pattern echoed repeatedly in firsthand accounts submitted to lawmakers.
“I understand the desire to keep families together. But family preservation cannot mean child endangerment. Reunification without accountability is not mercy. It is negligence,” Penner added. “When a child has to die before we act, we have lost the plot. When sobriety is optional and compliance is treated as progress, we are setting children up to be the collateral damage of adult failure. That is not what this system was created to do.”
Couture said the Legislature must decide whether it is willing to change course.
“These are real children. Real families. Real funerals. And every time this bill is blocked, we are choosing to maintain a broken standard instead of fixing it,” Couture noted. “I have brought this bill year after year because I refuse to accept that waiting for a tragedy is an acceptable threshold. If we know fentanyl kills, then pretending exposure is not imminent harm is indefensible.”
Couture and Penner are urging Democratic leadership to end what they call the deadly guessing game and pass emergency legislation that:
- Puts Child Safety First: Clearly states that the presence of fentanyl constitutes an immediate threat, allowing temporary removal while parents seek treatment.
- Rejects Ideology Over Safety: Makes clear that avoiding foster care placements cannot override a child’s right to survive.
- Protects Every Child: Removes the arbitrary distinction that treats fentanyl exposure as dangerous only for children under five.
“Removal is hard. It is disruptive. It is emotional,” Couture said. “But it is not more traumatic than burying a child. Foster care is not the worst outcome – death is. The Majority has the authority to stop this now. If they refuse, the next death won’t be accidental. It will be intentional inaction.”