WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Is it legal to spank children in Washington state?

The case of NFL running back Adrian Pederson has brought national attention to corporal punishment of children vs. child abuse. Pederson was indicted by a grand jury in Texas for causing injuries to his four-year-old son with a switch or branch from a tree.

Would that action be legal here in Washington state?

Our state does NOT allow corporal punishment in public schools. Lawmakers banned that in 1983.

Washington state – like every other state in the union – DOES allow corporal punishment in the home.

If spanking is okay, what’s not?

Here’s how Washington state defines child abuse:

(1) Physical abuse means the nonaccidental infliction of physical injury or physical mistreatment on a child. Physical abuse includes, but is not limited to, such actions as:

(a) Throwing, kicking, burning, or cutting a child;

(b) Striking a child with a closed fist;

(c) Shaking a child under age three;

(d) Interfering with a child’s breathing;

(e) Threatening a child with a deadly weapon;

(f) Doing any other act that is likely to cause and which does cause bodily harm greater than transient pain or minor temporary marks or which is injurious to the child’s health, welfare or safety.