Rep. Chris Corry and Rep. Jeremie Dufault: Closing Yakima Valley School is a shortsighted, cruel approach to balancing the budget
Former Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent budget proposal defunded and closed the Yakima Valley School. The Yakima Valley School in Selah is a residential and respite care facility for those with developmental disabilities. HB 1472 and SB 5393 implement the school’s closure through legislation.
We must stop these cuts for the sake of developmentally disabled individuals and their families in our community and across Washington state.
The proposed closure started in the state’s Office of Financial Management (OFM), which recommended the cuts to shave $29.5M from the state budget. Ironically, OFM misappropriated $30M of taxpayer money during the last budget cycle which the Legislature never approved and which has still not been accounted for.
But let’s cut through the politics and budget posturing. Closing a facility that serves the most vulnerable in our community and their families is shortsighted and takes our state’s mental health care system in the wrong direction. We need to reopen permanent resident admission to the Yakima Valley and Rainier schools and increase the number of mental health care beds in Central Washington and across our state. We have a homelessness and substance abuse crisis. We can only make progress on these problems by expanding mental and behavioral health care services and resources, not cutting or reducing them.
Residents at the Yakima Valley School receive a level of care they will not receive anywhere else. It is wrong to take these residents away from staff they know and trust, both on a health service and a moral level.
Many at the school are lifelong residents, and families relying on the school’s respite care services have no other viable options for temporary relief and care for their loved ones. For individuals with developmental disabilities, structure and routine, including the people who surround and serve them, are critical to their overall health. Predictability and familiarity help reduce anxiety, provide better communication and understanding, and give them a sense of security and safety. This, in turn, can empower them to develop skills and confidence and improve their overall mental and physical well-being.
We ask for your help in this important effort. Please contact the Governor’s Office at (360) 902-4111 and ask him to preserve irreplaceable facilities and resources like the Yakima Valley School in our state. Please also contact the sponsors of HB 1472 and SB 5393 with the same message. And, if possible, join us and advocates for the developmentally disabled from across our state in Olympia for Residential Habilitation Centers Action Day on Feb. 12, 2025.
We should not balance the budget by closing facilities and cutting services for our state’s most vulnerable. Together, we can win this important fight.
