Washington Funeral Resources & Education
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Restoring Community Access to Filing a Death Certificate in Washington State

4/21/2021

 
By Jodie Buller
 
During my years as a cemetery manager, I’ve worked with folks who’ve been comfortable relying on a funeral director to file the death certificate and obtain their burial/transit permit, and others who wanted to handle this paperwork themselves, as is their right under Washington law. I had to tell these DIY families that Washington’s shift to exclusive reliance on an electronic death registration system (EDRS) meant that they would have to hire a funeral director. 
 
Seeing the traumatic and expensive barriers this created for Zaakera Stratman after her daughter Mikaela’s death increased my motivation to pursue a solution. With this website already in development, we formed a two-pronged plan. The first was to invite funeral directors friendly to home funerals to commit to offering reasonably priced “a la carte” assistance solely to facilitate the Death Certificate and/or Burial/Transit Permit (unless other services are desired), and to train their staff accordingly. (See Completing the Death Certificate> Hiring Assistance for Filing in How to Complete Paperwork.) 
 
More importantly, our website development team initiated outreach to the Washington Department of Health to highlight the discrepancy between Washingtonian’s rights under the law and the current practice of restricting filing to professionals with EDRS access. We were fortunate to have former National Home Funeral Alliance President Lee Webster and Funeral Consumers Alliance Executive Director Josh Slocum willing to take the lead. They brought their years of advocacy experience to bear, identifying the key personnel to engage and the legal citations that affirmed this right. With that information, in mid-February 2021 we generated a flurry of letters from affected families, along with community advocates and organizations.
 
Within days we had a response from the Department of Health (DOH). Donna Feddern, Vital Records Manager for the DOH Center for Health Statistics confirmed, “There is a defined process for registering a death when there is no funeral home involved and it is still a paper process.” By the end of February, DOH had issued an official one-page publication titled Families Acting as Funeral Directors. 
 
There is now clear and accessible documentation of the legal authority for those who chose not to hire a funeral director to handle the paperwork. Ms. Feddern has assured us that both this publication and paper death certificates have been distributed to county clerks who are responsible for facilitating this process on the local level. (It’s still a good idea to print it out and bring it with you to your county clerk. See How to Complete Paperwork for more tips.)
 
As a member of the team developing this website and someone who supports a lot of folks who prefer to do-it-themselves when it comes to death-care, I am grateful to DOH for this clarification, to Lee and Josh for initiating the advocacy push, and to all the community advocates who made their voices heard. 
​
For more background, read Karen’s Story for an example of family-filed paperwork in Oregon. 
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Washington Funeral Resources and Education is a non-commercial public interest site dedicated to helping Washington consumers care for their own dead with or without the assistance of a funeral director. See FuneralPartnership.org for more state funeral information. This site is maintained as a project of White Eagle Memorial Preserve and Sacred Earth Foundation, which coordinates responses to inquiries with other Washington-based organizations and practitioners that support the mission of the Funeral Partnership.
Disclaimer: 
This website has been created by volunteers making reasonable efforts to provide resources and materials for informational purposes only. Any information you obtain from this website is not legal advice and should not be relied upon without confirmation of current law. No warranties, expressed or implied, are made with respect to the information herein. There is no guarantee that the information contained here is complete or up-to-date as of the date that you view this site. ​The agencies linked via hyperlinks are responsible for the content of those sites. Their information is subject to change and should be consulted directly to ensure accurate and up-to-date information. Please report any inaccuracies to us in the form on the CONTACT page. Thank you!
  • Home
  • How To
    • Get Help Now
    • Learn the law
    • Have a Home Funeral
    • Perform Body Care >
      • Cooling Techniques
    • Complete Paperwork
    • Arrange Disposition
    • Transport the Dead
    • Create Ceremony
    • Go Out Greener
    • Pay for a Funeral
    • Work With Professionals
  • Learn More
    • Resources For Professionals
    • Tools for Community Education
    • Organizations, Articles, Books
    • Sample Forms
    • Glossary
    • Media Kit
    • Pandemic Care Guide >
      • Pandemic Care Guide
      • Practical Guidelines
      • Ceremony Resources
      • Articles
      • Covid-19 FAQs
    • FAQs
  • Read Stories
    • Read Their Stories
    • Heather's Story
    • Mikaela's Story, P 1
    • Mikaela's Story, P 2
    • Mikaela's Story, P 3
    • Alicia's Story
    • Rich's Story
    • Jake's Story
    • Briar's Story
    • Karen's Story
    • Lashanna's Story
  • Blog
  • Contact