DIRECTIVE OF THE GOVERNOR
20-02
March 26, 2020

To:

Ross Hunter, Secretary
Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families

From:

Governor Jay Inslee

Subject:

Visitation During the COVID-19 Emergency

As you know, the benefits of maintaining consistent contact between children in foster care and
their parents and siblings are significant across several measures, making visitation services one
of the most valuable forms of support for families involved with our State’s child welfare
system. During the current emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that
visitation services be delivered in a manner that allows for the social distancing necessary to
keep everyone safe—children, parents, foster families, visitation providers, and case workers.
For these reasons, I am directing you to immediately develop policies to support Proclamation
20-33, regarding visitation between children in foster care and their parents and siblings. These
new policies must support implementation of video visitation services as follows:
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Provide for video visitation using video conferencing options that comply with legal
requirements and security standards for sensitive data and information.
Utilize available funding to acquire and expedite the distribution of necessary
equipment to parents, visitation providers, and caregivers to assist in the delivery of
video visitation services.
Prepare and distribute guidance regarding the use of video technology to visitation
providers, parents, caregivers, and staff, including guidance to support video visitation
activities for children of all ages.
Ensure technology support is readily available as needed to assist with trouble-shooting
in implementing this directive.
Conduct regular meetings by telephone or video with visitation providers to assess
implementation of video visitation, address challenges, and identify areas for improving
the video visitation experience for children and families.

 Directive of the Governor 20-02
March 26, 2020
Page 2

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Provide regular updates about Department of Health guidelines regarding COVID-19
and social distancing to agency field offices, caregivers, parents, providers, and other
key partners.
Consult with the Department of Health to outline a plan for shifting back to in-person
visitation when it is safe to do so.

I also direct you to adopt emergency rules to require foster parents to use available means for
video visitation in order to support ongoing contact for children, parents and siblings, consistent
with each child’s case plan. Please prioritize this work in order to begin video visitation services
not later than Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
During this unprecedented state of emergency, I am encouraging and asking all sectors of the
state’s child welfare system to pull together in support of children and their families. These are
very trying times for everyone, and we can make them less trying and less traumatic for children
when we keep their interests and well-being at the forefront.
Thank you for your leadership.