(The Center Square) – Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy has no current plans to expand an ongoing state audit into the Department of Children, Youth and Families, despite reports of potential high-dollar payouts to many providers that don’t match up with allowable subsidies.
The Center Square interviewed McCarthy on Jan 22 to ask about the audit her office has underway, and to find out if the office will dig into what appears to show potential fraud.
“No, that’s not what we’re doing. What we’re doing is an audit related to DCYF as to how the money is processed to the providers,” McCarthy said. “What we do is we do this audit work and then we provide that information to the people that can do the enforcement, which would be the DSHS Fraud Investigative Unit or the AG’s Office Fraud Investigative Unit, and then they would determine who would actually take the next steps.”
Her statement seemed to contradict what AG Nick Brown said during a Jan. 21 press briefing when Brown told reporters his office serves as legal representation to state agencies, including DCYF and therefore does not investigate the agency, nor release details of anything they learn due to attorney-client privilege.
For the third time in recent weeks, TCS and independent journalist Jonathan Choe with Discovery Institute went out to investigate south King County home daycares listed on a state website as having received large taxpayer subsidies that don’t correlate with the number of children they purport to serve.
As happened in previous outings, TCS found no evidence of actual daycares in the homes visited this time in Des Moines, WA on Wednesday, Jan. 21.
TCS spoke with one woman through a Ring doorbell speaker after seeing someone in an upstairs window of the home on S 244th Place, where there is allegedly a daycare.
She did not come to the front door, but said through the speaker it was daycare, but then said no one was home. The woman then said she had no openings for the daycare, but responded to say “none of your business, honey” when TCS asked how many kids she watches.
According to the state website fiscal.wa.gov, that particular daycare received more than $138,000 in subsidies between July and December of 2025.
A neighbor directly across the street told TCS he hasn’t seen evidence of a daycare operating from the home.
“It’s not right if you’re scamming the system. I don’t agree with it. I work hard every day,” said the man who did not want his name published saying he ‘didn’t need any neighbor issues.’ And the thing is, I say this here, what about the people that have been in this country for years and paid into this system? They get crapped on.”
Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, has reintroduced legislation that he hopes will get a hearing concerning state agencies responsible for millions in taxpayer subsidies being more accountable for how those dollars are spent.
“When we follow the money, we know that we’re seeing a licensed in-home daycare with a certain amount of allowable enrolled kid slots, right? And even if you gave them the benefit of the doubt and it’s a fully maxed out daycare, and you assume they’re all infants, which is the highest subsidy amount, about $2,200 a month, you see the subsidy payments do not match what is the reality for what they could actually receive in subsidies,” said Couture.
The Mason County lawmaker told TCS that given how much of the budget is soaked up by DCYF, and majority Democrats promoting new tax hikes, any potential fraud deserves a review.
“Sometimes where there’s smoke, there’s fire and people should be upset about it,” Couture said. “This is a big line item in our state budget. We can’t allow this stuff to happen. The state must be good fiduciaries and be responsible for these tax dollars. And when there’s an allegation of fraud, we should absolutely take those seriously instead of just trying to whitewash over it, like it doesn’t exist because it’s politically inconvenient for you.”
Auditor McCarthy told TCS that she does not support any reporters investigating the alleged fraud, outside of reporting allegations to a state agency.
“I would say as a mother of four and 11 grandkids, and all of them have been in daycare at some point because all of them are working families, I would not want a citizen going to my child’s daycare,” said McCarthy. “If you have a concern, there are people that you can give that information [to]. Send it to us if you have a credible incidence.
As previously reported by TCS, the AG’s office has said they will not investigate and email requests for an interview with DCYF secretary Tana Senn elicited a response on Monday to say, “We will take your interview request with Secretary Senn under consideration.”
