State lawmakers in Washington have made progress on a bill that would decriminalize teen sexting, KIRO 7 reported. House Bill 1742 passed on March 4 and is now in committee in the state senate.

The bill, which has bipartisan support from 15 different sponsors, would change the way teen sexting cases are handled. According to KIRO 7, current law dicatates that teens who send their own nudes can be charged with felony child pornography charges and end up as registered sex offenders.

Lawmakers in Olympia are holding a public hearing Wednesday on a bill that would expand parents’ rights to access mental health care for their adolescent children.

The bill includes changes long sought by parents, who have argued that state law makes it difficult to help mentally ill teenagers if they refuse to cooperate.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, would allow mental health care providers to give limited information to parents about their teens’ mental health treatment, even if the teens object. Currently, providers can share information only if the teen explicitly consents.

SARA JEAN GREENE
The Seattle Times

Robbing a convenience store at gunpoint or spraying bullets from a moving vehicle are the kinds of crimes that will no longer see 16- and 17-year-olds automatically sent to adult court — and likely, on to adult prison.

Gov. Jay Inslee recently signed legislation that represents what one lawmaker called “a seismic shift” in the state’s efforts to reform the juvenile-justice system. The new law removes a handful of crimes from the list of what are known as auto-decline offenses and extends juvenile jurisdiction for those specific crimes to age 25.