WA to stop taking funds from youth in extended foster care

Washington youth in extended foster care will no longer have to reimburse the state using their own disability or survivor benefits under a new bill signed into law Wednesday.

Senate Bill 5911, sponsored by Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-West Seattle, and Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, stops the state, starting next year, from intercepting funds from foster youth ages 18 to 21 who receive federal benefits such as retirement, survivors and disability insurance and supplemental security income to pay for services they receive from the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

It's the first major push by the state to take action as advocates have worked in recent years to get a version of the bill passed that includes all foster children and youth. But challenges — namely, the state’s multibillion-dollar budget gap, lawmakers have said — have stood in the way.

Kim Justice, director of public policy at Partners for Our Children, said while advocates remain committed to fully ending the practice, this year they had to take a more “targeted approach in light of the state’s fiscal constraints.” The bill's passage “represents a meaningful and pragmatic first step,” she said in a Tuesday statement, that prioritizes young people in extended foster care at a critical time when they are transitioning to adulthood.

“However, more than 600 children in care are still being denied these benefits, underscoring the need for continued, meaningful progress to ensure they receive the support they are entitled,” Justice wrote.

The extended foster care program allows for those who were 18 when in the care of the state to continue receiving services as they work toward independence, according to DCYF.

DCYF said approximately 100 foster youth in extended care will have their benefits placed into an Achieving a Better Life Experience account on their behalf. The ABLE account is a tax-free savings account that allows people to save more than $2,000 without losing federal benefits.

Services from the agency include foster care placements or supervised independent living setting placements, medical and dental, transitional living services and case management.

The practice of intercepting benefits predates the creation of DCYF in 2017 and came from a push to maximize federal funding to fill budget holes when many states faced shortfalls.

A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case, Washington State Department of Health and Human Services v. Guardianship Estate of Keffeler, unanimously upheld the practice.

An investigation by the Marshall Project and National Public Radio in 2021 found that foster agencies in at least 49 states and Washington, D.C., applied as financial representatives for foster youth, as permitted by federal law, and obtained those benefits to pay for the cost of care services.

At least 1 in 10 foster youth nationally are eligible for federal benefits due to disabilities or the death of a parent, according to the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy. According to the organization, state agencies confiscate federal benefits “without notifying beneficiaries, their loved ones, or lawyers.”

Washington is not alone in the practice, but other states in recent years have taken firm steps to end it, like in Nebraska, where Gov. Jim Pillen signed an executive order in January to bar the state from intercepting benefits.

In 2025, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly also signed an executive order to end the practice, and lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and Arizona passed legislation to stop seizing benefits in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

At the bill signing Wednesday, Ferguson called the bill an “important piece of legislation,” saying the measure “represents a step toward discontinuing this practice for all age groups in foster care.”

In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, a spokesperson for DCYF said the agency “has been supportive of no longer utilizing public benefits to reimburse the state for the cost of care.” Estimates show that no longer intercepting benefits would cost about $11.7 million for the 2025-27 biennium.

DCYF also noted this year's measure will result in approximately $900,000 less for the state, but said the Legislature provided funding in the final version of the state’s supplemental budget to account for the loss.

Warnick, who announced her retirement from the Legislature this year after nearly 20 years in office, said in an interview that while she would have liked to see the bill go further this year, she believes it will still help those transitioning out of foster care.

“I think getting some funds to these older foster youth will be a good way to start,” she said, adding that the state should have prioritized preserving foster youth benefits when budget writers were crafting the budgets this year and last.

“That's our job as the Legislature is to take care of the most vulnerable,” she added.

The law will go into effect Jan. 1.

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