2025 WaSHINGTOn State Legislative Session​

The Washington State Legislature is the state's lawmaking body, where elected Senators and Representatives come together to create and pass laws that shape the daily lives of Washingtonians.

The citizen Legislature meets annually on the second Monday in January in the Capitol building in Olympia. In odd-numbered years — the budget year — the Legislature meets for 105 days, and in even-numbered years for 60 days. The 2025 regular ​session was held January 13– April 27.

Now that the 2025 Legislative Session has come to a close, it is time for a nap, and for everyone to take some time to process and understand impacts of the changes. Governor Ferguson is signing bills now, and we’ll also be watching to see whether he vetoes anything.

Thank you to everyone who advocated this Legislative Session, and a particular thank you to everyone who attended our Saturday Advocacy Drop In Sessions. It takes all of us working together to advocate and create change and we want to thank everyone who took time out of their Saturdays to be in community and to discuss strategy around legislative advocacy.

Some takeaways from this session:

The cap on Special Education has been eliminated.
We are grateful for the years of work and partnership with Representative Pollet to get rid of this cap. Per Washington State’s constitution the paramount duty of the state is to amply fund access to a basic education. Special Education is how students with a disability who qualify for an IEP access education. When the cap was in effect, our state was choosing to not fund access to basic education for some students solely on the basis of their disability.

➜ Seattle Times, WA lawmakers poised to give schools a special education victory “Eliminating the cap is a massive moral and ethical victory,” [SCPTSA Co-president, Samantha] Fogg said. “It’s a tremendous victory for the civil rights of students with disabilities to finally end what can only be described as unconscionable discrimination.”

Our school districts continue to NOT be sufficiently funded.
Before the start of session, across the state, people who are involved in schools and the entities that represent and support came together, united, and said that our schools are in fiscal crisis, and asked for support on the Big Three funding issues - Special Education, Materials Supplies and Operating Costs (MSOC), and Transportation - we would see districts across the state unable to pass balanced budgets and needing to go into binding conditions.  These issues were not fixed this session.

While we celebrate the elimination of the cap on Special Education, we simultaneously are frustrated that the legislature did not fully fund, or even approach fully funding Special Education.  If you look at the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee report on Special Education you can see that the amount districts across our state are spending on special education is much larger than the amount of funding our state provides districts. Despite a small increase, MSOC continue to be woefully underfunded by our state.

The Legislature did not address the shortages in transportation funding.

We thank both Senator Pedersen and Representative Pollet for their leadership on pushing for funding for Special Education and for our schools in general.

➜ Seattle Time Opinion, Lawmakers, you did not make a ‘significant investment’ in WA schools, By Joel Aune, Executive Director of the Washington Association of School Administrators

Equitable funding did not happen
A large part of the investment into our schools was done through allowing districts to ask local voters for increased amounts of levy dollars.  Here in Seattle, when we passed our recent levy, we granted authority to collect a larger dollar amount should the state increase the amount that Seattle is allowed to collect. This means that the change at the state legislative level will allow Seattle to collect an additional $25 million in levy dollars.  Across the state, however, we have seen other districts unable to pass levies, and communities not having the wealth to pass both an operations levy and a bond for things like critical improvements to their buildings. I am told that Northshore is not able to go to their voters to ask for a levy until 2027.  

This was a difficult session
Our state faced a budget shortfall, disagreement between legislators and Governor around the best way to navigate that shortfall, and has made some truly difficult cuts. Legislators are saying this is one of the hardest sessions they have had, and increased funding in our schools, as inadequate as it is, is one of very few areas to see increases rather than cuts.

  • SCPTSA advocates under National PTA & Washington State PTA (WSPTA) to make every child’s potential a reality. WSPTSA & SCPTSA engage and empower families and communities to advocate for all children by organizing members across Washington state and Seattle through priorities selected by membership.

    WSPTA Top 5 Legislative Priorities for 2025–26

    1. Closing the Funding Gaps

    2. Addressing the Student Mental Health Crisis

    3. Addressing Funding, Inclusion, and Supports in Special Education

    4. Preventing and Reducing Gun Violence and Suicide

    5. Expanding School Construction Funding Options

    WSPTA also supports The People’s Big 5 Legislative Priorities for Equitable Schools — a grassroots coalition echoing Professor David Knight’s “Big 5” legislative priorities for fully and equitably funding education in Washington State. SCPTSA encourages local PTA’s to vote with members to sign the pledge and share it with your school community!

    SCPTSA is also informed by

  • WA State Legislature District Finder by Address

    36th Legislative District
    (Northwest Seattle)
    Representative Liz Berry, Chair, Labor & Workplace Standards Committee
    Senator Noel Frame, Vice Chair, Human Services, and Ways & Means, Finance Committees.
    Representative Julia Reed, Vice Chair, Transportation

    46th Legislative District
    (Northeast Seattle)
    Representative Darya Farivar, Vice Chair, House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee
    Representative Gerry Pollet, Member, Appropriations, Post Secondary Education & Workforce, Education and Committees
    Senator Javier Valdez, Chair, State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections, and Vice Chair, Joint Administrative Rules Review Committees

    43rd Legislative District
    (Central Seattle)
    Representative Nicole Macri, Vice Chair, Appropriations Committee
    Senator Jamie Pedersen, Majority Leader
    Representative Shaun Scott, Vice Chair, Labor & Workplace Standards Committee

    34th Legislative District
    (Southwest Seattle)
    Senator Emily Alvarado, Vice Chair, Housing Committee
    Representative Joe Fitzgibbon, Majority Leader
    Representative Brianna Thomas, Assistant Majority Whip

    37th Legislative District
    (Southeast Seattle)
    Senator Rebecca Saldaña, Chair, Labor & Commerce Committee
    Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos, Chair, Education Committee
    Representative Chipalo Street, Majority Caucus Vice Chair

  • Did you know that you can watch or listen to Legislative Work Sessions and Public Hearings via TVW? And most are recorded and become available approximately two hours after the close of the hearing or session. Check out all the ways to access TVW.

  • Send a Message About a Bill
    After searching for a bill, click the dark green "Comment on a Bill" button on the Bill Summary Page to send a message to your elected official and share your opinion. You can request a response to your message if you wish.

  • Many bills introduced in the Legislature will receive a public hearing, where citizens are given a chance to present their opinions on proposed legislation.

    There are three ways to participate in a public committee hearing:

    1. Testify in a Committee Hearing
      Duri​ng the Legislative Session, you can register to testify in a​ committee hearing in-person or remotely through Zoom. 

      If you frequently testify on bills, you may find it useful to create a Legislative Account.​​ An account allows you to autofill sign-in information and view and edit your sign-in history.

    2. Submit Written Testimony to a Committee
      Written testimony has a 5000 character limit. You will need to copy and paste your testimony into a form box. 2 MB of supporting info can also be uploaded.

    3. Note Your Position on a Bill for Legislative Record
      If you wish, you can choose to simply have your position noted — Pro (for the bill), Con (against the bill), or Other (there is more nuance to the decision).

    To sign-up to participate in a committee hearing,

    1. Start from the Homepage of the WA State Legislature website, enter the bill number, and click the “search” button.

    2. Once on the Bill Summary Page, click the dark green “sign-up to testify/submit written testimony” button. If you do not see this button (directly below the “Send a comment on this bill…” button) there may not be opportunities to participate.

    3. Once on the Committee Sign In Page, select the bill/agenda item you would like to comment on and a list of options to participate will be listed below.

    4. Select the option you would like, fill out a simple form (your street address is NOT required), and click the “Submit Registration” button.

    Alternatively, you can start from the Committee Sign In Page on the WA State Legislature website, however, you will need the following info to navigate to the registration page…

    1. The chamber (House or Senate) where the public hearing will take place

    2. The committee the bill has been assigned to

    3. The Meeting date and time

    4. The agenda item/bill you would like to comment on

  • The Washington State Legislature is dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can fully participate in the legislative process. Requests for onsite spoken language and ASL interpretation should be submitted at least 48 hours in advance by completing our Accessibility Request Form and coordinating with the ADA Coordinators in the House or Senate. The more advance notice you are able to provide, the higher likelihood that your request can be fulfilled.

    For complete information, visit the accessibility information page.

    Any legislative number can be reached via the state Telephone Relay Service at 800-833-6384 (voice) or 800-833-6388 (TTY).

  • January 13 – First day of session.

    February 21 – Policy Committee Cutoff. Last day to read in committee reports in house of origin, except House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees.

    February 28 – Fiscal Committee Cutoff. Last day to read in committee reports from House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees in house of origin.

    March 12 – House of Origin Cutoff. Last day to consider bills in house of origin (5 pm).

    April 2 – Policy Committee Cutoff - Opposite House. Last day to read in committee reports from opposite house, except House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees.

    April 8 – Fiscal Committee Cutoff - Opposite House. Last day to read in opposite house committee reports from House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees.

    April 16 – Opposite House Cutoff. Last day to consider opposite house bills (5 pm).

    After 5 pm on the 94th day, only initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets, matters that affect state revenue, messages pertaining to amendments, matters of differences between the two houses, and matters incident to the interim and to the closing of the session may be considered.

    April 27 – Last day allowed for regular session under the state constitution.

    May 20 – The last day the governor has to take action on a bill.

    July 27 – 90-day effective date. Legislation becomes effective 90 days after adjournment of the session unless otherwise specified in the bill text.

    If the 2025 session ends before the 105th day, these dates will change accordingly.

 

Do you have a question?
Please reach out to president@scptsa.org, treasurer@scptsa.org, or secretary@scptsa.org and we would be happy to help!