2023 LEGISLATIVE REPORT: SIGNIFICANT WINS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES

We have much to celebrate at the close of the 2023 legislative session. Together with our members and partners, we achieved significant wins on youth mental health, oral health care, child care and much more. After over a decade of hard work by advocates, dental professionals, Tribal leaders, and our partners at the Washington Dental Access Campaign, the legislature voted to take a big step forward for oral health access and passed HB 1678, which will expand the practice of dental therapy into community-based health care settings across the state. This legislation will enable dental therapists to treat kids and families in communities where dental care is often out of reach, addressing significant (and often racialized) gaps in access to care.

Children's Alliance expanded our work in children’s health and strengthened coalition connections by working alongside the Health Coalition for Children and Youth to pass bills aimed at addressing the youth behavioral health crisis. We also joined with the Washington Coalition to End FGM/C to pass SB 5453, which will ban the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting on children in Washington, provide education in communities where the practice takes place and provide support for survivors.

At the end of March, the state Supreme Court upheld the capital gains tax and validated the legislation we worked so hard to pass in 2021. We were instrumental in defending this highly progressive tax, which raises essential revenue for the continued implementation of the Fair Start for Kids Act and will help expand access to high-quality early learning and K-12 education for Washington’s kids.

There is still work to be done and Children’s Alliance will be monitoring the implementation and impact of the legislation that we advocated for this session. We are grateful to work alongside our partners and advocates from across the state to build a better and more racially-just future for all our children.