A state Senate committee that focuses on children will hold a work session in Aberdeen next week.

The Senate Human Services, Reentry and Rehabilitation Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rotary Log Pavilion for a work session on “rural poverty.” Its agenda lists an overview of poverty in the state by the Economic Services Administration division of the Department of Social and Health Services. Representatives from the Aberdeen Office of the Northwest Justice Project, Coastal Community Action Program and United Way also will be on hand to provide their perspective on regional poverty. And there will be a time for public comment.

According to the committee’s website, it “considers issues relating to services to children and families, including child welfare, child protection, dependency, and foster care. The committee deals with chemical dependency, at risk youth, juvenile justice, and corrections and offender re-entry.”

Grays Harbor County has been in the news in recent years for its efforts to curb imprisonment of minor status offenders, or children whose only offense was being truant from school, being considered at-risk or similar classifications.

The HSRR Committee had planned a visit to the Grays Harbor juvenile detention facility. However, that tour recently was canceled.

“We will be discussing the challenges posed by poverty in rural Washington communities,” said Sen. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, chairwoman of the HSRR Committee, in describing Tuesday’s work session.