The Washington State LEAD Support Bureau works to support the implementation of LEAD with fidelity to its core principles.
In 2019, the Governor proposed and the legislature provided funding for replication of the LEAD model in a handful of Washington communities, via SB 5380 (LEAD replication funded through the Health Care Authority) and HB 1767 (Arrest & Jail Alternatives pilot programs funded through the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs (WASPC)). The LEAD Support Bureau was named in both bills as the technical support provider to these efforts.
Beginning in 2019, the LEAD Support Bureau’s Washington Technical Support Team has helped guide, advise and support LEAD programs in Whatcom, Snohomish, Mason & Thurston Counties, and Arrest & Jail Alternatives (AJA) programs in Olympia, Walla Walla and Port Angeles (the latter two have designated themselves as LEAD models).
In 2021, after the Washington Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Blake technically invalidated the state statute criminalizing simple drug possession, the Washington legislature established a presumption of diversion for the new misdemeanor offense of simple possession, and created the Recovery Navigator Program based on LEAD core principles.
The LEAD Support Bureau Technical Support Team was named in SB 5476 as the technical assistance provider for this effort to create community-based care alternatives to jail and prosecution statewide.
