2025 LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

The Building Blocks of Our Agenda  

At Children’s Alliance, we see a future in which all of Washington's children have an abundance of what they need to grow up to be the people they dream of becoming. To make this vision a reality and combat harms created by systemic racism, we work with those most negatively impacted by current laws to ensure that our state prioritizes progressive policy changes in the areas of early learning and child care, health equity, and economic justice.  

Our state is facing a staggering budget shortfall over the next four years. As a result, we are focused on protecting against cuts to key programs, fiercely advocating for progressive revenue solutions that compel corporations and the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share, and fighting against any efforts to balance the budget on the backs of those who are furthest from opportunity. 

Here are our top priorities for the 2025 legislative session:  

Early Learning

• Invest in public preschool programs so that every eligible child has access.

  The Fair Start for Kids Act (FSKA) includes a commitment that all eligible, interested children will be entitled to a slot within the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP). Honoring this commitment requires more facility space, additional slots across the state, and increased compensation for providers. Responding to current needs in the field, we are advocating
  for a compensation rate increase for providers this year, as well as an increase of slots until every eligible child has a guaranteed spot. This advocacy responds to current needs in the field by delaying full implementation of the entitlement while still prioritizing the addition of new slots to and ultimately reach the entitlement goal.

• Increase eligibility for Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) subsidies and ensure that provider compensation keeps up with inflation.

  Washington families are generally eligible for child care subsidies if their income does not exceed 65% of the State Median Income (SMI). In line with FSKA requirements, we are advocating for adjusting the cutoff to 75% SMI to increase the number of families eligible. It is also important for the WCCC program to pay providers a rate that is competitive to the amount that families pay without subsidies. FSKA requires child care subsidy rates for licensed child care centers to achieve the 85th percentile of market rates in the state, so we are advocating to ensure that provider subsidy rates are maintained at the 85th percentile based on the 2024 market rate.

• Invest in early learning facilities.

  Safe infrastructure is essential for early learning programs, and this proposal would invest $50M in the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) fund to help WCCC and ECEAP providers pay for facilities and eligible renovations so that they can best serve their communities.

Health Equity

• Implement age assurance for social media accounts.

  Social media has significant influence on our young people and can fuel symptoms of depression and anxiety. Reducing exposure to social media can help prevent these symptoms from developing in the first place, protecting our kids and easing the demand on limited behavioral health resources

• Establish a statewide platform for screening and intervention delivery.

  Washington currently lacks a common platform through which children and youth can learn about, be screened for, and access behavioral health interventions. Creating a single point of access for the variety of behavioral health needs and resources will greatly expand access to mental and behavioral health care for youth.  

• Create a solution to enable statewide coordination of efforts to address youth behavioral health crisis.

  Lack of coordination between multiple state agencies is part of the reason Washington is ranked 48th out of 50 states in the behavioral health care it provides to children. We are advocating for the creation of a new state-led entity to coordinate programs and delivery of mental and behavioral health intervention across the state. 

• Create a state commission to address issues faced by boys and men.

  We have heard from parents, educators, academics, and health providers about increasing gaps in academic and behavioral outcomes for boys and young men in Washington. As a result, we are advocating for the creation of a state commission, modeled on the existing Washington State Women’s Commission, to hear from key stakeholders and make recommendations to the Legislature to confront these alarming trends. 

Economic Justice

• Pass a 1% tax on extreme wealth in the form of stocks and capital assets

  Many crucial state programs and services rely on state revenues, and we must ensure that those most in need of these services are not also the only ones bearing the tax burden to fund them. We are advocating for a 1% tax on extreme wealth resulting from ownership of financial property like stocks and bonds.

 Children’s Alliance also supports the following progressive proposals: 

• Fully fund home visiting rates 

• Re-link ESIT (Early Support for Infants and Toddlers) funding to preschool special education 

• Increase dedicated funding and programming for Indigenous communities, including by allocating funding to the Tribal Early Learning Fund 

• Improve equity in funding for rural communities 

• Universal free school meals 

• 2025 recommendations from Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group  

• Guaranteed Basic Income 

• Affordable Homes Act/real estate excise tax reform 

• High earners payroll tax on employers