Contact:
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104
E-mail
The Seattle Social and Health Services Division is comprised of 25 attorneys and 19 professional staff. The division provides legal services to the Department of Social and Health Services and the Department of Early Learning in King County. This division primarily handles litigation for its clients, including appeals, and provides case related client advice. The subject matter areas include child abuse and neglect, vulnerable adults and licensing of foster homes, child care homes and centers, and adult family homes and boarding homes.
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The division provides legal representation to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and the Department of Early Learning (DEL) in all levels of state and federal court and administrative tribunals. Approximately 80 percent of the division’s caseload involves juvenile court litigation (juvenile dependency and termination of parental rights proceedings). The other types of work handled include foster care and child care licensing hearings, adult family home and boarding home licensing hearings and adult protective services guardianships and protective orders.
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The number of new juvenile dependency cases has increased since 2009. Termination of parental rights cases have also increased as DSHS has continued to focus on achieving permanency for dependent children. King County Juvenile Court’s Family Treatment Court provides intensive substance abuse treatment and monitoring for parents involved in dependency proceedings. This program recently expanded to include cases in the Kent Regional Justice Center. The FTC program has a maximum capacity of 45 children in Seattle and 15 children in Kent. The goal of FTC is to provide the necessary treatment and other services so that children can be reunified with their parents in a timely manner and prevent re-entry into the child welfare system. The Attorney General’s Office is one of the founding members of King County’s FTC.
This division is a member of the King County Systems Integration Initiative. This initiative brings together all agencies involved in the juvenile offender and child welfare systems, including the court, schools and service providers. The goal is to improve communication among the various players so that children are better served by both systems. In 2006, we published our Field Guide for Information Sharing and the guide was updated in 2009. It can be found at the Child Welfare League of America’s website: www.CWLA.org.
This division is an active participant in the Model Court program, in which King County Juvenile Court is partnered with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges to implement changes in practice and outcomes in child welfare cases. In collaboration with the court and other stakeholders, we have implemented a mediation project, visitation improvements, calendar reforms, a parent engagement project and other improvements.
The division remains active in the area of adult abuse, neglect and exploitation. Vulnerable adult protection remains a priority for the division. Petitions to establish guardianship for vulnerable adults have increased 15 to 20 percent since 2006. This increase may be due to more active efforts and community awareness.
Another area of significant activity for the Seattle SHS Division is in the area of child care licensing. We have seen a steady growth in the number of child care licensing cases handled by this division over the last few years. This may be the result of increased monitoring by the Department of Early Learning.
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In re P.P.T.: The Washington Court of Appeals, Division One reversed the trial court’s dismissal of a termination petition and held that the trial court erred in focusing on what constituted a permanent home, rather than on the fact that continuing a relationship with the father impeded the children’s prospects for permanency. Given that the father’s deficiencies had not been corrected and were unlikely to be corrected within the near future, it follows that continuation of the father’s rights diminishes the children’s prospects for permanency and that the termination elements were established by clear, cogent and convincing evidence.
Hardee v. DSHS/ DEL: The Washington Court of Appeals, Division I, affirmed the revocation of a day care home after the day care licensee allowed her son to have unsupervised access to the day care children in violation of conditions that had been developed and imposed after the son's previous violent behavior. The court also held that the preponderance of the evidence standard satisfied due process in these circumstances.
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