SEATTLE — The top leader of the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) won’t seek reappointment once a new governor takes office in January, according to an internal all-staff email obtained by KING 5.
Ross Hunter, the secretary of the child welfare department, announced his decision to employees on Tuesday. He said he will not seek reappointment after a new governor, either Democrat Bob Ferguson or Republican Dave Reichert who are both in the running, is elected in November and takes office in January 2025.
“It's a hard, hard decision to make, but it's the normal course of events for large cabinet agencies,” he said in a video message. “New governors come in and they want to be able to make their own choices about who serves. I want to give room for the new governor, whoever that may be, to make that choice.”
Hunter, a former seven-term state representative, has led DCYF since Gov. Jay Inslee appointed him to the cabinet-level position in 2017 when the child welfare agency was formed.
He’s been publicly scrutinized in recent years for his leadership of the state’s newest agency, which has faced a series of challenges since its creation, including high-profile lawsuits, violent attacks on frontline workers, inadequate placements of at-risk foster youth and multiple escapes from one of the state’s medium-maximum security juvenile rehabilitation facilities.
In December 2023, unionized DCYF workers tried to oust Hunter with a vote of “no confidence,” but failed to collect enough signatures for the moment urging Inslee to fire and replace him.
Hundreds of workers claim Hunter did not address concerns such as unmanageable caseloads, frequent staff turnover and unsafe working conditions, KING 5 previously reported.
In his letter to staff, Hunter praised the success of the department. DCYF decreased the number of children and youth in out-of-home care from 9,171 in 2018 to 4,971 children in 2024, nearly in half, according to agency data. This is the lowest rate for out-of-home care since the 1980s.
He also highlighted that the agency has increased kinship placements to nearly 60% in 2024, up from 46% in 2017.
As for his decision, Hunter also said he recently turned 63, and that he feels it’s his time to step aside.
“This is a pretty challenging job that I have done for longer than most secretaries in these human services agencies, and I think longer than almost anyone nationally,” he said in the video. “It’s time.”