This year, Sen. Jim Hargrove (D-Hoquiam) introduced SB 5943 to "fix" the state’s troubled DSHS Child Welfare Services agency -- by privatizing it. The problems with this approach are many, including the new costs for supervising the contracts, and the likelihood that the people doing this important work will be paid far less than state employees -- if they get paid at all.

Take the case of Shayne Abegg, a boy who was hospitalized in 2007 after being purposely starved. Private contractors were found to be at fault.

The Seattle Times reported that a private contractor had been assigned to work with the Everett family on "food issues," after reports of abuse or neglect. After several months, the contractor told the state that the family was doing well and the case should be closed. A week after the contractor’s last visit, 4-year-old Shayne was hospitalized weighing less than 25 pounds, severely malnourished. Not long after that, the contracted agency was sued by former employees who said they weren’t being paid for their work. This year, a lawsuit over the boy’s near-fatal starving was settled by DSHS for $6 million, the largest settlement ever for a single child victim.

The lesson is that simply harnessing the fabled efficiency of the private sector won’t better protect kids, won’t demonstrably save money, and won’t stop the lawsuits. In fact, there’s reason to believe it will make things worse.

Nonetheless, SB 5943 to privatize 100% of child-welfare services passed the Senate 33-15 (see Senate Vote #4).

Meanwhile in the House, Rep. Ruth Kagi’s (D-Lake Forest Park) HB 2106 sensibly proposed studying whether contracting out these services even made sense, and passed unanimously.

The bills were amended in the opposite houses’ committees as Hargrove and other privatization advocates held their ground and compromise was sought. Ultimately, the bill that passed under an agreement brokered by leadership of both houses and the governor’s office, was HB 2106 to create pilot projects that essentially privatize 30% of Child Welfare Services over the next few years. It passed the Senate 37-10 and the House 97-0 and the governor signed most of it into law. The Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28 vows to work to mitigate the negative impacts of this unwise legislation on its members and the children they serve.