The Rainier School, a habilitation center for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is seen on Monday, March 3, 2025, in Buckley. Pete Caster Pete Caster / pcaster@thenewstribune.com
Dozens of people spoke out in Buckley on Tuesday night against two bills in the state Legislature that would close the Rainier School, a facility that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
About 40 or 50 people went to the “Save Rainier School” town hall at the Buckley Fire station, 611 South Division St. The Washington Federation of State Employees sponsored the event.
Many of the people who attended work for the Rainier School or have a family member who resides there.
“It affects the residents there, that’s all they’ve known,” said Danielle Modrow, an employee at the Rainier School. “They don’t know anything else, and it’s very sad the Senate is trying to do this – they’re taking their home away.”
The two Democratic-backed bills – one in the state Senate and one in the state House – would shut down the Rainier School. The House bill, if passed, also would close the Yakima Valley School in Eastern Washington, but would maintain respite and crisis beds in the area. The bills both say the Rainier School would shut down on June 30, 2027 and would not be able to accept new residents in the meantime.
Both bills have been deemed Necessary to Implement the Budget, meaning they are not subject to the usual cutoff dates to pass out of committee. On March 24, both bills were implemented into the House and Senate budgets. The legislature must negotiate and adopt a budget before the session ends on April 27.
Dozens of residents spoke out against the proposed closure of the Rainier School at the Buckley Fire Station on March 25, 2025. Isabela Lund ilund@thenewstribune.com
‘We’re a community within a community’
The Rainier School has served people with disabilities in Buckley since October 1939. It includes housing, medical care, occupational and speech therapies, employment, nutrition services, recreation facilities and more. The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services – the agency that runs the Rainier School – previously told The News Tribune that there are 81 residents and 460 full-time employees, with the state paying $52 million to run the facility each year.
Many of the people who attended the town hall were concerned about what would happen to residents if the facility shut down. Brittany Barber, a lead investigator at the Rainier School, said many clients would have to go to the state’s two residential habilitation centers that would remain open – Fircrest School in Shoreline and Lakeland Village in Medical Lake, a town in Spokane County.
“I spoke to a gentleman earlier whose currently back at Rainier School. His parents live in Vancouver,” Barber said. “If Rainier School closes and he moves to another RHC, they’re having to drive from Vancouver to Spokane to be able to visit him, or all the way up to Fircrest, and there are no other settings close to their home that he can go to.”
DSHS previously told The News Tribune that if the Rainier School shuts down, employees would work with each person to find the best choice for them. Options include the Fircrest School and Lakeland Village or a community-based setting, such as an adult family home, a companion home, a group home or supported living.
Many attendees at the town hall said the Rainier School has resources for residents that many community-based organizations do not and that they are worried some residents will end up in jails, hospitals or on the streets. Cathy Frie, an attendee who worked at the Rainier School for 42 years before retiring, said she has seen many residents go to community-based settings and then have to go to the Rainier School for help they weren’t receiving.
“I’ve seen so many clients come over here over-medicated or on the wrong medication because the community doctors are not specialized in the interactions of different drugs,” Frie said.
Marie Buss, another attendee, pointed out that a closure would affect potential future residents. Buss’s niece is 11 years old and has intellectual and behavioral disabilities, as well as a condition that means she will someday have to use a wheelchair.
“I’ve always kind of had that thought that, if it came to the point where it was too difficult to care for her, she needed specialized assistance, there was always Rainier School that she could go to,” Buss said. “That was an option for her and with that option going away, the fear comes out of, ‘What’s going to happen with my niece and where will she go?’”
Courtney Brunell, the city administrator of Buckley, attended the meeting and told the crowd that the Rainier School is the largest employer in the town of 5,114. She said the city is measuring the economic impacts that could happen if the school closed. Employees also repeatedly said they were scared of losing their jobs.
Both bills order DSHS to offer employees “opportunities to work in state-operated living alternatives and other state facilities and programs.”
Attendees also noted that, with community-based programs, it could be hard to determine if they are safe or if residents will be well-cared for.
“We’re a community within a community,” Frie said. “The clients still at the Rainier School? If they see me, they will come up to me and visit with me. You don’t find communities like that very often.”
‘They are not going to fill our jails and hospitals’
Stacy Dym, spokesperson for The Arc, a disability rights organization in Washington state, told The News Tribune in an interview that residential habilitation centers like the Rainier School are based on “an extremely old model of care” and that smaller, community-based options provide better care.
Dym pointed out that Washington is the only state on the West Coast that has residential habilitation centers, and 18 states across the country – including Oregon and California – have closed such centers completely.
“We have a long history in Washington state of successfully transitioning people in their community,” Dym said. “My sister lived in a state institution, and we went through the same kind of fears and trepidation – and [it still worked] because Washington state has a good planning process.”
She also mentioned that Washington state closed the Frances Haddon Morgan Center in December 2011 with successful results. A report from DSHS in May 2013 said the 52 people who had been living at Frances Haddon Morgan Center found new homes at other residential habilitation centers or in community-based residences. It also said those 52 people were “remain[ing] stable in their new homes.”
The Senate and House bills say DSHS has until June 30, 2027 to come up with a plan for each resident.
“People are not going to be turned out in a day, they are not going to fill our jails and hospitals,” Dym said. “There’s not a good reason to fear that these individuals that have been left uncared for or that we don’t have sufficient time to plan for these needs.”
Dym said that residents don’t have to go to community-based facilities if they don’t think it would be a good fit — there are still lots of capacity at one of the state’s other residential habilitation centers.
She also said the Rainier School should shut down because it has a long history of abuse. The News Tribune reported in 2018 that a former supervisor was sentenced for sex crimes against residents. In 2020, a resident’s family sued the state, alleging the Rainier School staff’s neglect following her bunion surgery led to her death in 2017.
The News Tribune asked Dym if she thought moving residents to community-based facilities was the safer choice. She said abuse is always a possibility, but residents can experience better care in smaller settings.
“Abuse is something that we cannot guarantee won’t happen anywhere ever, but it is something we can plan for,” Dym said. “Large congregate care is more susceptible to a level of abuse because people are not treated individually. When you’re all at the cafeteria at the same time, you’re all going to the meeting together at the same time, your activities are based on what the larger group wants and not what you want or need, there is always that danger.”
Dym said community-based settings give residents more freedom and personalized care.
“In a community-based setting, they are quite happy – they get to do things like pick the color of their room, or have a pet for the first time, or see their family more frequently,” Dym said. “We’re really excited because we believe that it is the right thing to do – to move to Washington state into the future of care.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
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Isabela Lund is the East Pierce County reporter at The News Tribune. She covers the latest news in Puyallup, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Orting, Edgewood, Buckley and beyond. Before joining The News Tribune in 2025, she was the digital content manager at KDRV NewsWatch 12 in Medford, Oregon and a reporter at the Stanwood-Camano News in Stanwood, Washington. She grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula and graduated from Western Washington University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.