This bill adds a new statutory section and amends existing law to change where and how people who committed felonies when under 18 are housed and reviewed. It requires adults convicted of a felony committed under age 18 and committed for confinement to be initially placed in facilities operated by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) except as provided elsewhere in RCW 72.01.410(4). The Department of Corrections (DOC) determines earned release dates. While in DCYF custody, routine treatment, housing, transfers, and access to programs must match the rules in chapter 13.40 RCW and DCYF has day-to-day operational authority; however, DCYF may not transfer a person to DOC without DCYF approval until the person reaches age 25 except as provided by statute, and DCYF may transfer earlier if retaining custody creates a significant safety risk. Persons whose earned release date is on or after their 25th birthday must be transferred to DOC at age 25, subject to limited exceptions in RCW 72.01.412, and DOC must approve any community custody release plan for those persons before DCYF may release them to community custody. The act also creates a rule that juveniles adjudicated of a serious violent offense under RCW 9.94A.030 who are committed to "the department" must be transferred to DOC when they turn 18, and it exempts those transfers from the hearing requirements in RCW 13.40.280. RCW 13.40.280 is amended to preserve the DCYF secretary’s authority, with DOC secretary consent, to transfer juveniles to DOC after a review-board hearing finding a continuing and serious threat to institutional safety, to set deadlines for review-board hearings when staff assaults are reported or when custodial-assault convictions occur, and to allow return transfers to juvenile facilities in some cases; the amended section explicitly states its hearing requirements do not apply to transfers under RCW 72.01.410(4) or the new section. The bill requires DCYF to review placement of persons over 21 at least once before age 23 if the commitment extends past the 23rd birthday, sets timing deadlines for review-board hearings (10 judicial working days after reported assaults on staff and 5 judicial working days after a custodial-assault conviction), and applies retroactively to people in DCYF custody on the act’s effective date regardless of when the offense or conviction occurred. The text references definitions and exceptions in other statutes (for example RCW 9.94A.030, RCW 9A.36.100, and RCW 72.01.412) that are not included here, and the bill uses the term "the department" in a new section without specifying which department in that sentence; the act’s effective date is also not specified in the provided facts.

If enacted, more people who committed felonies when under 18 will be housed and treated in DCYF facilities rather than immediately entering the adult prison system, generally until age 25, while the Department of Corrections keeps authority to set earned release dates and to take custody at or before age 25 for safety or statutory exceptions. This shifts day-to-day housing, programming, and near-term oversight costs and responsibilities toward DCYF (more staff time, program space, and prompt review-board hearings after assaults), while DOC faces increased workload to approve release plans, authorize leaves for those with later earned release dates, and manage transfers into adult custody at specified ages. The agencies most affected are DCYF and DOC and the incarcerated people covered by these rules; DCYF will likely need more resources to house and provide services to older youth-adults and to run timely hearings, and DOC will need to absorb coordination and transfer duties for people turning 18 or 25 and approve community custody releases, which may change where and when costs and risks fall between the two agencies. Important implementation details are missing from the facts provided — the bill’s effective date, which department is meant by a referenced phrase, and how referenced exceptions (for example partial confinement under RCW 72.01.412) apply — so the exact timing and scope of transfers and cost shifts are uncertain.