Being a parent is nonstop hard work, which makes following all the news happening in the City, state, and U.S. decision-making circles challenging. Here are highlights of Washington state political news for families from last week (Aug. 25-Sept. 1) and a hint at what’s up this week. I hope you will consider taking action – reaching out to those who represent you and your family in Congress and state offices — on the issues that impact families in our state.
New COVID-19 vaccine limits
If you were looking to protect yourself and your kids from COVID-19 for another year by getting the newest booster released this week, you are not in luck. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revised the license for the newest vaccine, rendering a significant portion of the American population ineligible.
The agency has limited recipients to seniors (over 65) and individuals between the ages of 16 and 64 who have a condition that puts them at risk of complications from the disease. No healthy parents, no healthy kids.
“We are deeply concerned that these additional limits will make it more challenging for people who want to protect themselves to access the vaccine, including parents who want their children to be protected and pregnant people,” said Dr. Eric Chow, chief of Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Immunizations for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “Several medical societies that review the data have deemed that the COVID vaccine continues to be safe and works well.”
Read the full story and learn what you can do to increase your chances of getting the vaccine for yourself and your kids.
Expanding youth mental health support in King County
King County is expanding its youth mobile crisis teams program, adding seven more mobile response crisis teams to its current two. The nine teams will travel county-wide, delivering urgent, in-person help to young people and families experiencing a mental health, drug, or alcohol crisis.
“When a young person is struggling, families shouldn’t have to navigate a maze of systems to get the help they need,” said King County Executive Shannon Braddock in a release. “This expansion allows for urgent, in-person behavioral health support when youth need it most.”
The teams, operated by the YMCA, include mental health professionals and trained peers who are ready to intervene, de-escalate crises, and connect young people with support and resources.
Last year, crisis teams for youth reached over 1,200 young people and families. The County also recently expanded mobile crisis teams for adults to 27.
Immigration checks for Medicaid and CHIP
Last week, the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that states must begin verifying the immigration status of individuals who obtain their health insurance through Medicaid and the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program. For families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, CHIP is a public program that provides low-cost health coverage for their children.
States and the federal government jointly fund the public health insurance program. Washington spends $21 billion annually on Medicaid, $13 billion from federal funds to serve the 1 in 5 Washingtonians who rely on Medicaid through Apple Health. That includes 850,000 children.
It’s all part of the administration’s ongoing attack on migrants. The feds will soon begin sending monthly enrollment reports to states identifying Medicaid or CHIP recipients whose immigration or citizenship status can’t be confirmed through federal databases. States are expected to verify the citizenship or immigration status of program users. As if money-bleeding states have nothing better to do with their severely limited dollars (limited thanks to federal funding cuts). Bad policy, wasted dollars spent verifying. I guess from the administration’s view, if you can’t find and kick immigrants out of the country, maybe you can “sick” them out. Inhumane. Read more from the reporters at Stateline.
WA joins petition to lift abortion pill restrictions
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined attorneys general and a governor from 16 other states to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to remove some restrictions on mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions, which they say make it burdensome to prescribe and provide the drug to patients.
The attorneys general in the 15 states and the District of Columbia, along with Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, filed a citizen petition, which is the formal process for requesting FDA changes, and provided evidence of the safety of medication abortion in their states as well as the burdens caused by the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone.
It’s the latest legal action by Washington state, including from Brown’s predecessor as attorney general, now Gov. Bob Ferguson, to push for broader access to the drug.
Debate over Keeping Families Together Act
Lawmakers in Washington are divided on whether to dial back a state law critics blame for a sudden spike in deaths and serious injuries among children enmeshed in the state’s child welfare system. Through June, at least 92 of these children involved in cases with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families had died or nearly died.
The 2021 Keeping Families Together Act raised the standard for separating children from their parents and aimed to keep them with other family members if they needed to be removed from their parents’ homes due to abuse or neglect, according to the Washington State Standard (WSS). The law’s goal? To stop poverty from being used as a reason to take kids away from their parents.
Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, the law’s initial sponsor, says the law is not responsible for the deaths: “The reality is that this is a community problem that we all now have to face.”
However, both Republicans and some Democrats say the law needs to be adjusted.
“Our state is going in the wrong direction,” said state Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, in the WWS report. “I know that foster care is not perfect, but to me, it’s much more preferable and safer than being dead.”
Couture drafted a bill during the 2025 legislative session that would lower the standard for child removal from “imminent physical harm” to “imminent or serious physical harm.” Expect the proposal to resurface during the 2026 legislative session, which starts on January 12 and runs through March 13. Read the full story.
A smart move on protest relocation
I’m surprised to say this, but thank you, conservative Christian group Let Us Worship, for agreeing to hold your concert at Gas Works Park this month, rather than at Cal Anderson Park, as you originally planned.
And thank you, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, for making it happen.
None of us wanted to see a repeat of the clash between far-right, anti-trans Christian group Mayday USA ralliers and LGBTQ+ counterprotesters that occurred earlier this summer at Cal Anderson. During that event, MayDay ralliers demanded the trans community stop “luring children” away from Christian values. The park sits in the family-oriented, LGBTQ+ friendly center of Capitol Hill. The chaos led to the arrest of 23 counterprotesters.
Let Us Worship, an ultra-conservative Christian organization, first tried to hold its Revive in 2025 concert at Cal Anderson in solidarity with MayDay USA. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed. The concert was rescheduled to take place on Saturday at Gas Works Park instead. Harrell and Hollingsworth released a joint statement after the City issued the group its event permit:
“According to the law, the City cannot deny or unilaterally relocate permits for public spaces based on the content of the speech or the impacts of that speech on the community,” they wrote. “The organizers agreed to move their event to Gas Works Park. We are grateful that they were receptive to our recommendation.”
According to KIRO 7 News, the gathering was tame compared to the uproar at Cal Anderson Park in May. A few hundred attended the concert. Protesters gathered too, playing kazoos and usung bullhorns with their own message: Bigotry is not welcome in Seattle. Which is a far truer message for kids and families to hear than the nonsense participants in the MayDay USA presented when they told trans people to “stop stealing their children.”
Flag burning executive order sparks outrage
This week, two moves by President Donald Trump stuck in my craw. Or, stuck deeper in my craw than his other myriad attacks on our democracy, our immigrant neighbors, our health, and numerous other rights protected by the Constitution.
First, last week, the President signed an executive order aimed at prosecuting anyone who burns an American flag.
I am thinking back to the Vietnam War protests and so many other demonstrations held in the decades since. I am recalling myself as a teen expressing my outrage at the U.S. nuclear arms buildup, burning a flag in protest to make the statement: Not in my name.
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court codified our right to that when it issued a 5-4 ruling stating that the First Amendment protects the right to burn the flag.
Now, Trump has U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi scouring to find a case to challenge the 1989 ruling. Parents, we need to care about every attempt to squelch constitutional rights. These are the rights that were created to keep our kids safe, to allow their voices to be heard, and to preserve our democracy.
Trump wants to rename the Defense Department
And then there was Trump’s recent announcement that he wants to change the name of the U.S. Department of Defense back to the War Department. It had me screaming ‘Oy!” loud enough to wake my kids in the basement.
After I explained my outburst, my son said, “It’s just a word, right?”
“No,” I wanted to open his skull and pour this in: “It is far more than a word.”
Currently, our stated stance as a country is that our military forces defend and protect our borders and defend our allies. The department name was changed for this reason back in 1947. To move backwards from a department whose title job is to defend, to one whose titled is to wage (read offensive, aggressive) should be deeply troubling to all of us, especially those with sons. Check out The Washington Post’s coverage and historical context of this critical issue.
