This bill creates new law establishing a requirement that records and artifacts from the state-operated Northern State Hospital—including historical documents and artifacts related to past residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities—be identified, preserved, catalogued, and stored. It directs the secretary of state and the Division of Archives and Records Management, working with the University of Washington Institute on Human Development and Disability, the Department of Social and Health Services, and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, to develop a preservation plan that identifies records at risk, assesses their condition, sets out preservation, storage, handling, transport, restoration, cataloguing and digitization steps, and includes a timeline, budget, and plans for future public access. The bill creates new statutory sections (Sec. 1–Sec. 3) and is therefore a procedural and records-preservation law, not a criminal or penalty change. The preservation plan must be reported to the appropriate legislative committees by September 1, 2027; no records may be destroyed until the plan is completed and the work is funded in fiscal year 2028. Indirect costs charged to the University of Washington for the project are capped at 15 percent. The act expires June 30, 2028. The text does not name which legislative committees will receive the plan, does not specify a funding source or appropriation amount, and contains limited detail about long-term custodial responsibility—there is potential inconsistency between the secretary of state being charged to hold records “in perpetuity” and other provisions assigning preservation duties to DSHS and the archives division.

If enacted, state archives and health agencies will have to inventory, assess, and prepare a funded preservation plan by September 1, 2027, for historical records and artifacts from Northern state hospital, and those materials cannot be destroyed until the plan exists and the work is funded in fiscal year 2028. Practically this means the Office of the Secretary of State, the Division of Archives and Records Management, DSHS, the University of Washington Institute on Human Development and Disability, and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation will incur planning and likely preservation costs and must coordinate responsibilities for cataloguing, storage, handling, digitization, and future public access; the UW’s overhead on the project is capped at 15 percent and the act sunsets June 30, 2028. Key uncertainty is how the preservation work will be paid for and which legislative committees will receive the plan, and there is some ambiguity about which agency ultimately holds the records “in perpetuity,” so agencies should expect to plan for costs and coordination but cannot proceed with destruction or full implementation until funding and final custodial arrangements are clarified.