Washington's independent child welfare watchdog told state overseers this week that more children died or nearly died last year than the agency running the system has acknowledged.
The Columbian , which also carried the report Thursday, noted the ombuds office reviews cases the department's own count does not capture, rather than disputing DCYF's methodology outright.
For a reader trying to judge how bad the child welfare system's 2025 truly was, the practical lesson is that any partial-year number the state releases should be read as a floor, not a forecast.
Neither Thursday's coverage nor the department's own November remarks disputed OFCO's authority to conduct its own count using its own criteria — the disagreement here is about which agency's methodology produces the more complete picture, not about whether either count is legitimate.
What Happens Next, and Why the Count Itself Is the Fight No new legislation was announced alongside Thursday's presentation, and the DCYF Oversight Board's next scheduled review of the data was not detailed in this week's reporting.
An independent state watchdog says 35 children died and 49 more nearly died in Washington's child welfare system last year, well above the department's own count of 23 deaths and 34 near-deaths.