RCW 26.20.030

Family abandonment—Penalty—Exception.

Applied in 40 court decisions — leading case 87 Wash. 2d 374 - State v. Arndt (1976)

Most recently applied in Verda Lee Crosswhite Vv Washington State Dept. of Social & Health Services (January 2017)

2002 c 331 s 6; 1984 c 260 s 26; 1973 1st ex.s. c 154 s 34; 1969 ex.s. c 207 s 2; 1955 c 249 s 1; 1953 c 255 s 1; 1943 c 158 s 1; 1913 c 28 s 1; Rem

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any person who has a child dependent upon him or her for care, education or support and deserts such child in any manner whatever with intent to abandon it is guilty of the crime of family abandonment.

(2) A parent of a newborn who transfers the newborn to a qualified person at an appropriate location pursuant to RCW 13.34.360 is not subject to criminal liability under this section.

(3) The crime of family abandonment is a class C felony under chapter 9A.20 RCW.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.