This bill adds a new section to chapter 28B.10 RCW creating a procedural requirement for institutions of higher education to take reasonable steps to present a "free speech fundamentals workshop" and to ensure each incoming student participates. The workshop must cover the institution's academic freedom and free speech policies, potential examples of violations of those policies, and the types of speech that are protected. Institutions are encouraged to present the workshop during orientation or as early as possible in the academic year and are strongly encouraged to use course material developed in consultation with experts in constitutional law and freedom of speech. The requirement is a new statutory obligation (a procedural change) beginning in the 2025–26 academic year. The bill text provided does not include enforcement mechanisms, penalties, funding, reporting requirements, or oversight provisions, and it does not define key terms such as "institution of higher education," "incoming student," or "reasonable steps." Bill identifier and legislative context: S-0173.1, Senate Bill 5607, 69th Legislature, 2025 Regular Session; read first time 01/31/25 and referred to the Senate Committee on Higher Education & Workforce Development. Sponsors listed: Senators Warnick and Hasegawa.

If enacted, beginning with the 2025–26 academic year Washington colleges and universities will need to arrange and encourage participation in a "free speech fundamentals workshop" for every incoming student that explains campus free speech and academic freedom policies, gives examples of policy violations, and outlines types of protected speech. Institutions will likely have to create or adopt workshop content (the bill encourages using materials developed with constitutional law and free speech experts), fit presentations into orientation or early-semester schedules, and track that students have participated. The practical effect is increased operational responsibility for institutions with likely modest costs for curriculum development, expert consultation, staff time, and scheduling; no state funding, enforcement, reporting, or penalty rules are provided in the text, and key terms like which schools are covered, what counts as "reasonable steps," and how participation must be verified are not defined, leaving some implementation details and compliance risks unclear.