Story by John Sattgast, Washington State House Republican Communications
A Washington state lawmaker who has pushed for years to change the “Keeping Families Together Act” is now calling for immediate action, saying the law has blocked authorities from removing children from homes where parents use hard drugs like fentanyl-despite a growing number of babies and toddlers harmed or killed by exposure.
Representative Travis Couture, a Republican from Allyn, says the current law sets an “impossible standard” for removing children from dangerous situations.
“Just in the first six months of this year, we had almost 100 critical incidents, which is child fatalities and near fatalities in our state. And that’s just for the first half of this year.”
Couture has authored House Bill 1092 to allow intervention when children face imminent or serious physical harm.
“If we’re a state government that can’t save kids from this hell of abuse and neglect in homes filled with hard drugs like fentanyl, I don’t know what else we can really do.”
Couture says bipartisan support is growing, but he’s urging the public to contact their lawmakers as the 2026 session gets under way.