WA HR4706

Recognizes September 30, 2026, as "Every Child Matters Day" (also known as "Orange Shirt Day") to honor victims and survivors of Indian boarding schools

Acknowledges that hundreds of thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were removed from families and placed in over 526 boarding schools nationwide from 1819 until the 1960s

Documents that at least 28 Indian boarding schools operated within Washington state between 1850 and 1930, run by the federal government or religious missions

Commends efforts to identify and preserve primary resources documenting Washington state Indian boarding schools and the experiences of children who resided in them

References "Orange Shirt Day" origin: six-year-old Phyllis Jack Webstad's orange shirt was confiscated on her first day at a residential mission school, symbolizing how schools stripped Indigenous students of their identities