Open Doors for Multicultural Families (ODMF) has released our 2026 Legislative Platform, outlining bold policy priorities designed to advance equity, safety, and access for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across Washington State. The platform highlights five urgent areas where state action is needed: ending restraint and isolation in schools, expanding language access, funding cultural system navigation, preserving Medicaid-funded disability services, and improving behavioral health access for diverse communities.
Ending Harmful Restraint and Isolation in Schools
One of our top priorities is the abolition of isolation and sharp reduction of restraint practices used on students with disabilities. In the 2023–24 school year, Washington schools recorded more than 23,600 incidents of restraint or isolation, with a staggering 93% involving students with disabilities. These practices often result in physical injury, emotional trauma, and disproportionate targeting of both students with disabilities and BIPOC students.
The platform calls for the state to eliminate isolation, expand trauma‑informed professional development for school staff, and strengthen data collection to ensure transparency and accountability.
Expanding Language Access Across State Services
With one in five Washingtonians speaking a language other than English at home, ODMF emphasizes that equitable access to state programs depends on high‑quality interpretation and translation services. The platform urges legislators to guarantee language access across all Washington State services, ensuring that limited‑English‑proficient communities can fully understand and navigate systems like education, healthcare, and housing.
Funding Cultural System Navigation
Washington’s disability support systems are notoriously complex. Many families, particularly those from multicultural or multilingual backgrounds, struggle to navigate eligibility rules, service systems, and paperwork. Cultural System Navigators, who are bilingual, bicultural professionals, play a crucial role in bridging these gaps.
The platform highlights the need for state investment in Cultural System Navigators to reduce disparities in access to housing, special education, employment supports, and healthcare.
Protecting Medicaid-Funded Disability Services
Proposed federal policy changes threaten to slash $41 billion in Medicaid funding for Washington State over the next decade, which would put essential services at risk for hundreds of thousands of residents with disabilities. ODMF’s platform calls on state leaders to safeguard access to home‑ and community‑based services, hospital care, transportation, school‑based health services, and more.
Preserving these supports is critical for the 276,000 elderly or disabled Washingtonians who rely on Medicaid to live safely and independently.
Improving Behavioral Health Access for Diverse Disability Communities
People with disabilities experience significantly higher rates of chronic mental distress and face steep barriers when accessing behavioral health care, including lack of culturally and linguistically accessible services. ODMF is urging state investment in next‑day behavioral health appointments, culturally competent crisis services, and stronger language-access requirements for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
By expanding access to mental health supports, Washington can reduce health disparities and improve long-term outcomes for people with IDD.
A Vision for Equity and Belonging
The 2026 Legislative Platform reflects ODMF’s core mission: ensuring that people with disabilities, and the families who support them, have equitable access to safety, stability, and opportunity. These priorities are grounded in community experiences, state data, and decades of advocacy led by and for multicultural disability communities.
As the legislative session begins, ODMF will continue working alongside families, partners, and policymakers to champion meaningful changes that move Washington toward a more inclusive future.