Allegations of racial bias swirl around embattled WA agency

The leader of Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families was questioned this week about her agency’s commitment to equity amid allegations of racial bias in the agency made by two former top aides.

The quizzing from a member of the agency’s oversight board on Thursday came after recent accusations that the agency is paying “lip service to equity work” and treating Black women unfairly.

“How are you addressing concerns about equity within (the agency’s) own leadership and organizational culture, while ensuring racial equity remains central to the services it provides to children, families and communities,” asked Lois Martin, a director of an early learning center in Seattle, at the Thursday meeting of the agency’s oversight board. 

Secretary Tana Senn responded by saying that “equity is a key aspect” of her agency’s operating principles.

“And nothing has changed in that regard,” she added.

The department runs the state’s child welfare and juvenile detention operations, both of which have faced crises in recent years. It also oversees child care for low-income families. 

Scrutiny of Senn stems from the searing resignation letter from the head of the agency’s equity office and a complaint to the state Human Rights Commission from a former assistant secretary who said she was unfairly demoted.

Upon stepping down from the equity post last month, Patricia Colemon leveled her accusations about the treatment of Black women and said Senn needed to be held accountable for her “ineffective and racist behavior.” 

“It’s been painfully clear that equity is NOT embodied here, neither are the operating principles by leadership at the highest echelon,” wrote Colemon on Sept. 9 after serving nine months as director of the equity office.

“I will take my higher standards elsewhere,” she wrote in closing.

Colemon cited, for example, that an employee had repeatedly been called the N-word in the workplace, but the staff member’s supervisor said to “suck it up.” She also said she witnessed multiple “racist and discriminatory actions against Black women” by Senn.

In one instance, Senn gave no proper reason for her refusal to promote a Black female employee to a deputy director position, Colemon said. Colemon was told it was because some saw this staffer as “unprofessional,” which Colemon took as a “trite dog whistle” that has been long used against people of color. 

“Everyone knows that the Secretary has to ‘like’ you and the hiring pattern in leadership positions at DCYF favors white women,” Colemon wrote.

Responding to the allegations, the secretary said in an interview that “this is not the record I’ve built over the course of decades.” Senn is a former Democratic state lawmaker who was appointed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in early 2025 to lead the Department of Children, Youth and Families. She said she was “disheartened” by the accusations, but didn’t deny them in detail.

In an August 2025 leadership meeting, another agency official pressed Senn about a perceived lack of diversity and two white women being finalists for a high-ranking role, according to a human rights complaint from Natalie Green, the former assistant secretary of child welfare at the department. Senn responded by shrugging and saying “I love white women,” Green alleged.

Not long after, Senn apologized in an email to staff. 

“While I was trying to have an important conversation about equity at our leadership table, I started the conversation awkwardly, to say the least, and I imagine and understand it made many of you feel uncomfortable,” she wrote. “It made me uncomfortable after I said it, but didn’t know how to address it so just kept going.”

Senn said she believes her willingness to apologize shows her “growth mindset.”

While working as assistant secretary, Green said her higher-ups undermined her authority on multiple occasions, and kept her out of the loop on changes in the department.

This August, she was pushed to decide within 24 hours whether to take a demotion to a temporary position ending in mid-2027, or be fired, Green reported. Agency leaders reportedly told her to explain to staff that she was “winding down” her career, even though that wasn’t true. Green took on the role of workplace project director, and remains at the department.

At a leadership meeting around this time, according to Green’s complaint, Senn explained that race played no role in the decision: “I fire a white guy, I can fire a Black woman.”

Kendrick Rochelle, who led the agency’s newest youth prison, said earlier this year that he suspected his firing following a harassment probe was motivated by race, as well. 

Senn said personnel decisions she’s made have been based on agency needs, nothing else.