Letter to the Editor Templates

Find templates below to write and send in your own letter to the editor to your local news organization.  Remember not to include confidential or identifying information for clients and to convey your views with respect.  You can mention that you are a WFSE member, but you need approval from your local to speak for your local, from your policy committee to speak for your policy committee, etc.  You can't speak for DCYF.

Option: Washington for All, Not Just the Rich

Washington state is ranked 49th for progressive revenue. Second only to Florida. Let’s talk about what our state taxes pay for: secondary and post-secondary education, safe drinking water, law enforcement, safe roads and highways, safe and clean parks and recreation, child welfare, jails and prisons, public defenders, juvenile rehabilitation, medical care, emergency services, and so much more. State employees keep our state beautiful, clean and safe. Budget cuts that eliminate jobs for essential workers continue the cycle of revenue decline. Budget cuts that reduce support for vulnerable populations increase the budget crisis. We need progressive revenue by eliminating tax breaks for wealthy corporations and imposing taxes on the wealthiest in our state. We need to fund public services to ensure the safety and stability of all Washingtonians. State employees need safe working conditions and manageable workloads. Safe staffing saves lives. 

Option: Personal Letter

Something deeply painful has been happening in Washington state. Child deaths and near deaths connected to abuse and neglect have dramatically risen in the past five years; 200% in the past year alone. 

As someone who works directly with families in crisis I see the reality behind these numbers. I see fear in children who are not safe. I see parents and caregivers who are now grieving the loss of their child, and who will never be the same. I see situations grow more dangerous while everyone involved waits for the moment when intervention is finally allowed, and hopefully before it’s too late.

The Keeping Families Together Act (HB 1227, 2021) was created with compassion. Its intention was to reduce unnecessary removals and support families by increasing the threshold courts use to remove children to keep them safe and alive. Those goals matter. But the unintended consequences are now impossible to ignore. 

By raising intervention standards to require imminent physical harm the system often cannot act until physical danger becomes a reality. In real life, that delay can be devastating. Children remain in unsafe homes that can become deadly before help can arrive. Professionals across many fields feel their hands are tied. 

I am speaking up because silence is a betrayal of the children who didn’t get the chance they deserved.