(The Center Square) – A new state audit has found that Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families broke state law and policy requirements regarding investigations of unlicensed child care providers, child abuse and neglect casework, and the agency’s gift card program for families in need.
The Office of the Washington State Auditor released its accountability audit of DCYF on Monday, covering the period from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. The audit identified three formal findings, two of which involve noncompliance with state law significant enough to trigger mandatory reporting to the governor and state legislative committees.
Auditors reviewed 25 of the 94 unlicensed child care investigations DCYF completed during the fiscal year and found widespread timeline violations.
The department failed to initiate a complaint response within one business day for three investigations, missed the five-day window for unannounced visits in five cases, and took as long as 39 days beyond the required 45-day deadline to close five other investigations.
The audit also found the department failed to post information on its website, as required by law, that a provider was operating without a license in five of the cases reviewed. State law requires such postings so the public can verify whether a child care provider is properly licensed.
“Without ensuring that investigations are completed timely, the Department cannot ensure they are compliant with state law and its own policies,” auditors wrote. “Additionally, when unlicensed investigations are not closed properly … it limits the public’s ability to verify that their child care provider is fully licensed and held to the standards expected of licensed providers.”
DCYF attributed the delays to staffing shortages that haven’t kept pace with growth in licensed providers.
“Licensed child care providers have increased by 27.5% since the end of 2021 with an average annual growth of 3.9%, without a corresponding increase in licensing staff,” the department said in its response.
DCYF said it is seeking funding in its 2027-29 budget request to create a specialized 17-person compliance unit.
Investigation training gaps
Auditors also examined 33 child protective services investigations and found all were completed on time. However, of 16 cases involving allegations of serious physical or sexual abuse, two involved caseworkers who lacked documentation showing they had completed legally required specialized interview training.
“By not receiving this training, the Department may not properly conduct forensic interviews that have been proven by research to be the most effective in drawing out reliable information,” the audit states, adding that workers without the training “may not be able to effectively defend their interviews in court, potentially limiting the ability to protect a child from future abuse.”
DCYF said in its response that one worker had actually completed the training in June 2024 but records weren’t updated. The department said the limited number of training slots offered annually by its training partner, the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, has created a backlog as the agency seeks other partners for the training.
Gift card mismanagement
The audit also included extensive findings involving DCYF’s gift card program, which distributed nearly $2 million during the audit period to help families with essentials and transportation. Reviewing five regional offices, auditors found significant lapses at four of them.
At the Seattle MLK office, auditors could not verify that a single one of 15 sampled gift card distributions had the required client signature, and found 73 gift cards unaccounted for entirely.
The Tumwater office lacked service referral documentation for 10 of 15 samples reviewed. None of the four problem offices had completed a single required monthly inventory during the 12-month audit period.
“Gift cards are highly susceptible to theft and misuse if strong internal controls are not in place,” the report warned, noting that of $2,210 in distributions examined, $1,280 lacked adequate supporting documentation.
This marks the second consecutive audit citing DCYF for gift card mismanagement; a similar finding from the 2022 audit was marked “not corrected.”
The department said it is hiring an administrator to provide centralized oversight.
Purchase card follow-up
The audit also reviewed the status of corrective actions from prior audits. While most were resolved, a finding involving the department’s purchase and office cards was deemed only “partially corrected” by auditors.
The original 2022 finding examined a sample of seven of the department’s 579 active cards and found 19 transactions, totaling $10,963, that violated department and state policy.
DCYF said it has since updated how authority is delegated and adjusted its purchasing systems to ensure staff have appropriate roles and access. However, the department acknowledged it has not yet provided training to regional office and headquarters staff on the relevant purchasing card policies and procedures, which left the underlying compliance risk only partly addressed.
While not addressed in the audit, DCYF has been the focus of media reports questioning whether they failed to investigate daycare centers who had little or no evidence of child care but received millions in taxpayer subsidies. The auditor previously told The Center Square their job was not to investigate those issues.