This bill amends existing law (RCW 13.34.065 and RCW 13.34.110) and creates new sections to increase judicial oversight and change procedures in juvenile shelter care and early dependency proceedings for young children, especially those under age five. It is primarily a procedural change: it requires shelter care hearings within 72 hours of removal (excluding weekends and holidays), sets notice, waiver, and counsel rules (including appointment for indigent parents), limits hearsay unless supported by sworn testimony or affidavit, and requires the court to make specific inquiries about the child’s health, safety, and case status at the hearing. The bill also authorizes courts to release a child to a parent or to place the child with a relative or suitable person unless the court finds specified grounds for continued shelter care or licensed foster placement, and it requires courts to give great weight to the lethality of high-potency synthetic opioids and related Department of Health guidance when deciding removal or placement. The bill expands the court’s authority to impose the least restrictive conditions necessary to keep a child under five safe in the home, and it sets limits and procedures for those conditions: courts may require verification of sobriety or treatment compliance, conditions must be reviewed at least every 30 days, parents must sign releases of information for referrals, and the department must provide referrals within seven days. Conditions must be identified by the department as culturally appropriate, ICWA-compliant for Indian children, reasonably available and accessible. The bill strengthens relative placement preference and timelines: courts must inquire about relatives as potential caregivers, incomplete background checks do not automatically bar placement with a relative who otherwise meets criteria, the department must begin home assessment within 10 days for relatives seeking licensure and report unqualified homes within one week, and no child may be in shelter care more than 30 days without a judge-signed order. It also requires individualized visitation plans maximizing parent/child and sibling contact, mandates the first visit within 72 hours of department custody absent extraordinary circumstances, and limits visitation restrictions to what is necessary for the child’s safety. The bill adds procedural protections at later stages: fact-finding hearings must follow rules of evidence and a preponderance standard, social studies must be reviewed before stipulated dispositional orders, and specified notices to relatives must be given unless clear and convincing evidence shows notification would be harmful. The act includes a funding contingency: if specific funding is not provided in the omnibus appropriations act by June 30, 2026, the act is null and void. Important parts of the text are missing from the provided extracts, so some specifics are unclear or not shown here: the complete list of items the court must inquire about at the shelter care hearing, the full text of subsection (5)(c) addressing substance use or caregiver impairment, the exact amendment language to RCW 13.34.110, the statutory identity of “the department,” and definitions for terms referenced like “high-potency synthetic opioids” and “qualified residential treatment program.”

If enacted, courts will intervene much sooner and more intensively in emergency child removal cases for children under five, with shelter care hearings required within 72 hours and a mandate for early visitation and frequent court review of any safety conditions. This will likely increase workload for juvenile courts and clerks, and create tight turnaround demands on the department and juvenile probation counselors to submit recommendations, start home assessments within 10 days when relatives seek licensure, and provide referrals within seven days after a parent signs a release. Parents will have stronger immediate procedural protections (appointed counsel if indigent, early visitation, and the option to accept prevention services instead of removal), and relatives or suitable persons can be placed quickly and begin receiving foster payments once licensed; at the same time, the department cannot use its own delays in arranging services as a reason to remove or continue shelter care. The practical pressure will be on the unnamed “department” to add staff, speed background checks and licensing, and possibly provide financial help to make relative homes safe, which could raise costs and administrative risk for that agency and for foster care providers. Courts will need to weigh public health guidance on high-potency synthetic opioids when deciding removals, and tribes and Indian child protections remain prioritized for placements. A key caveat is that important parts of the bill text are missing from the provided facts (including a full subsection about substance use and the explicit identity of “the department”), and the act also depends on specific funding being included in the omnibus appropriations act by June 30, 2026 or it becomes void, so exact implementation details and timelines could change.