On Thursday, HB 2068 went into effect after being signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in March. The bill allows for the creation of the Imagination Library of Washington.
“Powered by United Ways of the Pacific Northwest (UWPNW) and reporting to the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) in coordination with Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the statewide Imagination Library will promote, develop, and sustain affiliate programs across the entire state, as well as market the program to ensure all families have access to enroll their children,” said Angela French, communications and outreach manager at the Imagination Library of Washington.
The Imagination Library of Washington is part of an effort to establish a statewide Dolly Parton Imagination Library, becoming the eleventh state in the country committed to achieving the goal.
"I was so excited when Washington expanded my Imagination Library a couple months ago, and now I'm over the moon to learn that we're opening the program to all children in the state — it's just amazing! I'm so grateful to everyone involved helping us get more books to children and families across Washington. Our dream is coming true, so let's keep up the great work!" Dolly Parton said in a news release.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is an “early literacy program that mails high quality, age-appropriate books each month to children from birth to five years old, free to the family.”
The goal of the program in Washington is to create programs in every county in the state. The program hopes to enroll 150,000 children in Washington by June 2023. There are currently 26,000 children participating in the program throughout 29 county level programs that have been created so far.
“It is a personal dream come true to have Washington become the first statewide Imagination Library program on the west coast. We should all feel so proud as Washingtonian’s that we are supporting our children in this very special and impactful way. Sign your children up today and help inspire a love for reading and books. Don’t forget to gather around and read as a family,” said Brooke Fisher-Clark, executive director of the Imagination Library of Washington.
“I applaud the Imagination Library Expansion team and the Legislature for their efforts to expand this important program statewide, so every Washington child and family has access to these supports,” said Chris Reykdal, superintendent of public instruction.
State Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia, was a cosponsor of the legislation.
“Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library helps children build the necessary reading, writing and comprehension skills to become kindergarten ready; but maybe more importantly, creates valuable opportunities to bring families together for quality reading time,” he said. “My family has benefited from the Imagination Library, and I know families across the State of Washington will as well. On this ‘Law Day’ we can celebrate the legislative process and bipartisan effort to pass HB 2068 that made the Dolly Parton Imagination Library part of our early learning success.”
Since it became available in Lewis County in 2019, the program has been widely successful and popular. In March, French said 2,600 kids had enrolled in the program in Lewis County.
Dolly Parton created the program in 1995 in her home county in Tennessee as a way to distribute books and is now the flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit that has given over 182 million free books to children in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and Ireland.
