2/21 Deadline: Save Yakima Valley School and Rainier School

We have good news in our efforts to save Yakima Valley School and Rainier School. Support HB 1908! We now have a vehicle to keep the life-saving work at Rainier School and Yakima Valley School running in the form of House Bill 1908.

The first legislative cutoff is coming on 2/21, and we need HB 1908 to have a hearing before then.

Take Action Here ASAP

1. Copy and paste the committee members' emails below into the To section of an outgoing email with the subject line: Pass HB 1908: Save Rainier and Yakima Valley Schools.

Copy and paste all of the emails at once into your email To line -- no need to copy one by one.

2. In the body of the email, let them know you support HB 1908 and want a hearing to keep Rainier School and Yakima Valley School open. The more personal, the better!

3. The more personalized your email is, the better, but you can also use talking points from here: https://www.wfse.org/news/protecting-yakima-valley-school-and-rainier-school

or use this email as a template:

Greetings,

I am writing because the governor's proposed budget includes the closure of Yakima Valley School and Rainier School. In a plea, I urge you to pass HB 1908 to save Rainier and Yakima Valley Schools. We can't lose these crucial community resources for Washingtonians who need them.

The adults with developmental disabilities who call this facility home face displacement, trauma, homelessness and even mortality. This is a moral issue! 

Please reject the proposed closures and instead focus on maintaining and modernizing these vital facilities. Yakima Valley School and Rainier School represent a commitment to Washington's most vulnerable citizens—a promise that must not be broken. I have family and friends who work with clients in the community, and they constantly struggle with how many individuals they can accommodate at any given time. Additionally, they face challenges regarding the types of individuals they are able to accept. These facilities provide essential care and support to everyone.

Many community staff members are not trained to handle the intense behavioral issues that can arise. My friends and family have shared stories of clients who were transferred from other community homes, only to find that they were over-medicated and isolated in their rooms, resulting in a poor quality of life.

We have Residential Habilitation Centers (RHCs) for a reason. Rather than reinventing the wheel, let's provide the necessary support and funding to these centers so that they can accommodate more clients and offer additional services. The need for support for developmentally disabled individuals is not going to diminish; in fact, the demand will only increase, especially given our current circumstances.

Facilities like Lakeland, Rainier, Fircrest, and Yakima Valley School provide essential freedom and opportunities for those who cannot thrive in a typical community setting. The critical skills these clients learn help them integrate into society effectively. If this were my family, I would want them to be cared for and safe in our Washington State RHCs. Wouldn't you?

I urge you not to allow balancing the budget on our developmentally disabled community members.

Thank you so much for your time. Please PASS HB 1908.

[Your name] - [Where you work]

TOGETHER, WE CAN DO THIS.