Substitute House Bill 2244 (69th Legislature, 2026), read for the first time on 01/22/26, amends multiple existing Washington statutes and repeals RCW 18.46.090, RCW 24.06.480, and RCW 26.12.080. The bill makes a series of procedural and administrative changes to existing law rather than creating a new criminal offense or altering specified penalties in the extracted text. Key changes in the extracted provisions include: directing the office of the state long-term care ombuds to establish disclosure procedures under 42 U.S.C. 3058g(d) and to exercise discretion in favor of disclosure consistent with federal law and chapter 42.56 RCW; narrowing public release of grand jury reports to after a majority of a county’s superior court judges find three specified conditions; encouraging reporting of archaeological site locations and exempting that information under RCW 42.56.300; requiring coroners or equivalent officials to submit blood samples from drivers and pedestrians who die within four hours of an accident to the state toxicologist for specified analyses and to make results available to law enforcement and litigants; specifying which accident report fields must be disclosed to persons with a proper interest and which identifying fields must be redacted before disclosure under chapter 42.56 RCW, and limiting admissibility of accident reports in trials except in narrow circumstances; assigning DSHS and DCYF duties to establish and administer comprehensive programs for committed or admitted persons including diagnostic services, supervision, and transfer procedures (with transfers from minimum to close security requiring the committing superior court’s consent), and designating Green Hill school as a close security institution; prohibiting the director or the director’s officers or employees from using nonpublic information obtained through licensing for personal benefit; and adding or clarifying certain powers of the Director of Financial Management (text cut off in the extract). The bill also includes a provision authorizing an unnamed official (referred to in the extract as “he or she”) to enter contracts on behalf of the state, participate in multi-governmental programs, and accept gifts and grants. The measure is primarily procedural and administrative in nature: it amends disclosure and confidentiality rules, evidence and reporting procedures, and agency powers and duties, and it repeals three statutory confidentiality provisions. Important context is missing from the extracts: the identity of the person referred to as “he or she,” the specific “department” named in the archaeological reporting provision, the full text of RCW 43.41.100 (which is cut off), the texts or effects of the repealed RCWs, and any effective dates or implementation details.

If enacted, the bill would require the state long-term care ombuds to adopt disclosure rules that favor sharing information as much as federal and public records law allow, tighten how and when grand jury reports can be released, and keep archaeological site locations exempt from public disclosure. It also requires coroners to submit blood samples from people who die within four hours of a crash to the state toxicologist (whose results go to the state patrol and prosecutors and can be used in court), limits what identifying information must be redacted from accident reports for public release while ensuring certain basic crash details are available to interested parties, tasks DSHS and DCYF with expanded responsibilities for committed children including diagnostic services and transfer supervision (with Green Hill school designated for the most serious cases), and continues prohibitions on directors using nonpublic information for personal benefit. The bill also grants an unnamed official authority to contract and accept grants on the state’s behalf and expressly repeals three statutes that previously created confidentiality protections in specified contexts. The people and agencies most immediately affected will be the ombuds office (more disclosure decisions), coroners and the state toxicologist (more routine testing and reporting), law enforcement and prosecutors (more access to test results), those involved in accidents and their insurers or attorneys (greater access to basic crash facts though personal identifiers must be redacted), DSHS/DCYF and Green Hill (expanded custody and diagnostic duties), and anyone whose privacy relied on the three repealed confidentiality laws (those protections would be removed). The text leaves some important implementation details unclear—it does not identify who the person authorized to contract is, which department handles archaeological reports in the cited section, or when the repeals and other changes take effect—so timing and administrative arrangements are uncertain.