SB 6087 is a Washington bill concerning donations of children’s items, including clothing, diapers, food, baby formula, cribs, playpens, strollers, car seats, car seat restraints, toys, high chairs, and books. It expands and clarifies the legal framework for “distributing organizations” and “donors” that collect, repair, store, and give away these items free of charge, including charitable nonprofits, religious organizations, and public health agencies acting with or on behalf of such organizations.
The bill also provides liability protection for donors and distributing organizations. In general, they are not liable for civil damages or criminal penalties arising from the nature, age, condition, or packaging of donated children’s items unless they acted with gross negligence or intentional misconduct. For car seats specifically, the bill adds safety-related procedures: organizations must ask about the car seat’s history, disclose that they cannot guarantee its safety history, and confirm that the seat is not expired and not subject to a safety recall before distributing it.
The bill amends Washington statutes in chapter RCW 7.72 and related provisions governing donated children’s items and liability. It broadens statutory definitions, creates or clarifies exemptions for charitable, religious, and public health entities involved in donation distribution, and establishes a limited-liability standard for those entities and donors. It also imposes specific screening and disclosure requirements for used car seats, affecting organizations that accept and redistribute child safety equipment.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the Senate committee 9-0, the Senate floor 49-0, the House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee 13-0, and the House floor 91-0. The unanimous votes suggest strong bipartisan agreement that the measure promotes charitable reuse of children’s goods while preserving basic safety protections.
There is little evidence of substantive opposition in the available record. The main policy balance in the bill is between encouraging donations of children’s items by limiting liability for donors and distributing organizations, and protecting recipients by requiring extra caution for used car seats. Any potential concern would likely center on whether the liability shield is broad enough or whether the car seat verification requirements are sufficient to protect child safety, but no recorded committee debate or dissent is available here.