Welcome to our 2021 Lobby Day!

January 18, 2021

A quick guide to everything you need to know about lobby day - whether you are part of a member lobby team who has apppointments with your legislators or if you are cyberlobbying.

Lobby Teams

• Join our breifing from 9-10am.
• Don't forget to wear RED!
• Download our virtual Zoom background for your meetings:
• 
• Make sure that someone from your team fills out a debrief form for each legislator meeting.
• If you don't have a meeting set up with each of your legislators, don't worry! Follow the instructions below to cyberlobby them instead.
• Have fun!

Cyberlobbying

There are 3 ways to contact your legislator - calling, emailing or posting on social media and tagging them.

• CALL - 1-800-562-6000 (legislative hotline)
• EMAIL - https://app.leg.wa.gov/MemberEmail/
• SOCIAL - Share your story on social, and don’t forget to tag your @legislator!

If you don’t know what your legislative district is, please visit the legislature’s District Finder.

Message

Regardless of whether you are meeting with legislators or just sending them a message, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

Share your story

It's important that legislators hear directly from you about what's happening in our schools. Beyond the facts, figures and statistics, it provides a personal and memorable touch. As educators, the most powerful thing we can do is share these stories.

Messaging
Washington’s public school students need safe, equitable, and just learning.  That’s why it’s critical that Washington’s lawmakers fully fund education and move forward with improvements to public education that will fix safety, access, and equity problems during the pandemic.

COVID has shined a light on school underfunding and on how far we have to go to ensure safe, racially equitable and just schools.  These problems existed before COVID but are worse under and will continue after COVID.  We need to fully fund special education and expand the prototypical schools model to include to include adding more nurses, counselors, and mental health professionals for meeting students’ social-emotional needs and providing family supports.

We are particularly interested in highlighting:

• FUNDING: The pandemic has exposed areas of education that are still underfunded.  We need to fully fund special education and expand the prototypical schools model to include to include adding more nurses, counselors, and mental health professionals for meeting students’ social-emotional needs and providing family supports.
   
• EQUITY: Every student should have the supports they need to develop to their full social and academic potential, including supports to overcome barriers created by racial, social, and economic inequities.  Alternative paths to graduation, expanded family support and social work services, and universal broadband access can bring us closer to breaking down barriers.
   
• SAFETY: Districts need to instill trust and confidence in families, educators, and students that they will be safe to ensure school buildings can remain open for the long-term.  The state legislature can help ensure that all districts have the plans, staff, space, supplies and available funding to address the requirements for reducing exposure to the virus.

Questions

Contact Hillary Hunt at hhunt@washingtonea.org.