An Idaho law targeted fentanyl dealers. Prosecutors are using it to charge users, too
An InvestigateWest review found at least 30 people charged with trafficking without evidence of selling or distribution. They face mandatory minimum prison terms.
Foster Care
Washington lawmakers look to keep families together as part of foster care reform
Poverty, disability, homelessness wouldn't qualify as sole reason to take kids away
Washington misses its deadline to bring foster kids home from troubled out-of-state group facilities
When a Michigan boy died in May after being restrained by employees at a Sequel institution, child-welfare advocates in Washington demanded that the state bring home the foster kids remaining at Sequel facilities.
Washington foster kids detail abuse at Sequel group homes
Washington foster youths recount mistreatment at out-of-state Sequel Youth & Family Services facilities.
Washington housing foster care kids at state offices in record-breaking numbers
The number of times that state child-welfare workers housed foster children overnight in government offices has exploded, from six times in the last reporting period to 284.
COVID-19 spreads in WA’s foster-care group home system; operators fear state's wrath
With COVID-19 spreading into Washington’s system of foster care group homes, operators of the facilities say they are in a precarious position and fear “retaliation” by state child-welfare officials
Amid COVID-19, ex-foster youth struggle – will WA match other states’ rescue plans?
Young adults in the foster care system, who are disproportionately people of color, were already at risk for a litany of serious problems even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Birth parents fight to visit kids in foster system during pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has translated into severe unhappiness for parents of children taken into Washington State's foster-care system who no longer are able in most cases to have in-person contact with their children.
