Building a new agency — especially one as large and important as the Department of Children, Youth, and Families — is no easy task. Merging Children’s Administration, the Department of Early Learning and eventually the Juvenile Rehabilitation program, requires a considerable planning and oversight in order to be successful.

I am very excited to have submitted the Department of Children, Youth, and Families’ very first budget request to the Governor’s office this week. Even though we’re working towards only a supplemental budget, it feels like a milestone in “realness” for the new agency.

The monumental task of creating a new agency is well underway, and I am eager to share with you our progress thus far. We’re trying to take a thoughtful and inclusive approach to this work, one that brings to bear the immense expertise from staff and the field as we make critical decisions for the new agency.

Governor Inslee signed HB 1661 on July 6, 2017 creating the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. The DCYF will restructure how the state serves at-risk children with the goal of producing better outcomes for at-risk kids.