As part of the state’s continued effort to support Missing and Exploited Youth, we would like to share that as of Jan. 1, 2024, minors are exempt from arrest and charges related to prostitution. This update is a result of HB 1775 and an important milestone that recognizes and affirms youth 17 and under are legally victims of child sex abuse and, therefore, should no longer be identified as “prostitutes” or criminalized for their victimization. This creates a powerful and necessary language shift in our state.

Washington State has been in a leading role on this issue since the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was signed in 2000, which affirmed the nation’s commitment to combating human trafficking both domestically and internationally. In 2003, Washington became the first state to criminalize human trafficking in law, and then in 2010, our first Safe Harbor Bill (SB6476) was passed. In 2020, Safe Harbor was fortified in Washington with the passing of House Bill 1775.

In the future, please consider that our choice of words regarding youth who have been exploited must not reflect criminal intent but, instead, be rooted in an understanding of the trauma that recognizes children as not responsible for their victimization. With this recognition, we must then accurately reflect in our language that youth are never “selling or prostituting themselves” when they are being bought and sold by perpetrators, who are traffickers and exploiters.

Even in situations when a youth may verbally identify as having power over these decisions, it is our responsibility to speak as trauma-informed professionals and use language that reflects the changes in law.

The Appreciative Inquiry initiative has formed its core team! We are incredibly encouraged and humbled by the interest that everyone showed in this exciting endeavor. Thank you to all who attended an info session or submitted an interest form.

The core team is comprised of 47 individuals from across our agency and across the state. The team includes representatives from the following divisions:

• Administrative Services – 7 total (1 from NE area, 1 from SE area and 6 from SW area)
• Child Welfare Field Operations – 16 total (5 from Region 1, 1 from Region 2, 2 from Region 3, 1 from region 4, 5 from Region 5 and 2 from Region 6)
• Early Learning – 6 total (1 from Central Area, 5 from the SW area)
• Office of Innovation, Alignment & Accountability – 1 total from the SW area
• Juvenile Rehabilitation – 2 from the SW area
• Licensing – 5 total (4 from the Tacoma area, 1 from the SW area)
• Partnership, Prevention, and Services Division – 8 total (2 from the NE area, 1 from Pierce County, 1 from King County, 4 from the SE area)

We will be holding a series of weekly meetings between now and Feb. 12 for team building and exploration of Appreciative Inquiry concepts. Some of the topics to be covered include:

• Leadership as a practice
• Culture shifts and organizational change
• Equity
• Using your own experience in leading and creating change
• Facilitation 101
• Understanding complex systems
• Story and narrative-based engagement
• Project and-team management

For information about this effort, visit our SharePoint site at Appreciative Inquiry. For questions, contact John Tuttle-Gates at john.tuttle-gates@dcyf.wa.gov.

As you may recall from last week’s Digest, OneDrive, a cloud-based document repository, will be enabled  on Wednesday, Jan. 31. This is part of a larger, behind-the-scenes enhancement where staff will save their work and is needed prior to the Teams added functionality rollout on Feb. 29, 2024. Staff do not need to do anything to prepare for this backend change, and it won’t affect your ability to access your files.

Staff may notice some changes to their desktop and start menu icons and file directory.

• Staff will see a folder called “OneDrive – Washington State Executive Branch Agencies” show up in their files. (See picture above.)
• Staff may notice some changes to their desktop and start menu icons with the addition of little green checkmarks. These checkmarks indicate that your items have been “synced-up” to the cloud in OneDrive. (see picture below.) 

The DCYF Office of Innovation, Alignment and Accountability is actively researching and evaluating child welfare, early learning, and juvenile rehabilitation policies and programs. Details on OIAAs evaluation and research projects are available on the Intranet and results from many of these projects are publicly available. In addition to the work occurring within our agency, there are many entities outside of DCYF that are interested in conducting research related to our clients. When partnering with these entities, the OIAA is responsible for ensuring that access to administrative data, collection of new data through focus groups or surveys, and study methodology are ethical and equitable. We work to ensure staff time requests for research are supported by leadership and align with the agency’s highest priorities. Details on that process were described in a recently published video.

OIAA spends significant time to ensure that external researchers proposing to work with DCYF have been endorsed by DCYF leaders and have the resources necessary to effectively conduct their proposed research in a way that will inform program and policy decisions. In calendar year 2023, 45 requests for research studies were brought to OIAA for review. Of these, 29 were approved, 8 were declined, and 8 remain under review. 

Of the 45 requests for research studies:

• 27 studies focused on Child Welfare
• 8 studies on Early Learning
• 6 studies on Juvenile Rehabilitation
• 2 on Child Welfare and Juvenile Rehabilitation
• 2 studies focused on Child Welfare, Juvenile Rehabilitation, and Early Learning

Details on the DCYF research review process and the role that staff play in protecting staff and clients in research are available on the Intranet. If you are solicited to support or participate in research, please contact your supervisor to confirm before proceeding. Supervisors, please reach out to OIAA at dcyf.datagovernance@dcyf.wa.gov if additional clarification is needed.

Juvenile Rehabilitation 

Child Welfare, Region 3

Deputy Regional Administrator, Patricia Turner and Area Administrator, Maloua Beck from Region 3, shared an uplifting family hearing that was filled with accolades from both the Tlingit Haida Tribe and the presiding judge. 

The judge spoke to his appreciation of the collaborative nature of all parties working together and acknowledged the “humanity” of the collaboration based on the exceptional circumstances.

The Tlingit Haida stated on record the great work of Dowdy Gilles-Stevenson, SSS2.  He provided active efforts and acknowledged the State providing significant funding to support the plan moving forward.

The situation the family is in is a difficult one and Dowdy, with the assistance of Jacob Spangler, SSS4 and Alex Wagner, CFWS Supervisor, has done an amazing job. Way to go, Region 3!

Share your thoughts by taking a few minutes to complete the 2024 Staff Safety Survey.  

The 2024 Safety Survey is open through Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. Take the 2024 Safety Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2024SASPASafetySurvey.

We would like to thank DCYF staff that have already taken the 2024 Safety Survey. For questions about the survey, please contact DCYF Safety Officer Cindy Spencer at cindy.spencer@dcyf.wa.gov.