(The Center Square) – Nearly six months after The Center Square began investigating inexplicably large taxpayer subsidies to home daycare providers in King County, the state has yet to announce plans to thoroughly audit the Department of Children Youth and Families, or the Department of Commerce, the two agencies responsible for running Washington state’s Working Connections Child Care Subsidy program.
“If your bookkeeper found a $37 million discrepancy in your accounts, wouldn’t you want to get to the bottom of it? Wouldn’t you be the least little bit curious?” questioned Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, in a May 8 press release.
He was referring to an estimated $37 million in questionable payments in 2025 identified by State Auditor Pat McCarthy made to childcare providers by DCYF.
McCarthy’s office said the eyebrow raising payments were not evidence of outright fraud, and indicated the agency had no intention of opening a broader fact-finding mission.
“When the auditor says there’s a loss of $37 million that we think were overpayments or, not necessarily fraud, but then they didn’t look for fraud…that’s a real issue,” said Christian in an interview with The Center Square.
“And yet, we at Human Services Committee are not even looking to see if there is an issue there? This is very concerning to the state and to the people of our state,” he said.
Christian notes with DCYF paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit payouts for the agency’s failures, they should not be allowed to ignore pleas for transparency.
“We paid out $130,000,000 on one lawsuit for DCYF, when they sent a young person back into a home….and the child died. That’s our tax dollars not going to schools, not going to police, not going to services,” he said.
“That’s money going to somebody, because we made a mistake. So, why are we continuing to hide or block anyone from looking into them? It’s nuts.”
TCS investigation
The Center Square began looking into potential daycare fraud back in December, after independent journalist Nick Shirley first posted videos showing daycare fraud in Minnesota.
The Center Square found dozens of alleged providers listed within a few mile radius, and in many cases no evidence of an actual home daycare. Some of the providers were listed as receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars over a period of several months.
In Washington state, home-based daycare providers can receive subsidies from DCYF, which is partially funded by the federal government. The number of licensed daycare providers in Washington state has increased 36% in five years, while the number of children enrolled is projected to decrease.
According to records obtained by The Center Square, a childcare provider was investigated in April 2025 by the Office of Fraud and Accountability and found to be billing for hours not actually worked and failing to keep attendance records. No further action was taken against the daycare provider.
As reported back in January, Democratic leadership chastised The Center Square for its investigative work into potential daycare fraud.
“For people to go out and knock on the door of childcare centers and demand to see kids…I was just having to calm down Rep. Stonier about what would have happened if somebody did that with regard to her children,” Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said during a Jan 14 media availability.
When The Center Square alerted the office of State Auditor Pat McCarthy to what we had documented, TCS were told not to be “knocking on doors” of any daycares and should report any anomalies to DCYF.
When TCS pushed to find out if McCarthy would look into the questionable providers, we were told that we could submit the data, but it was “not part of [their] current audit.”
Senate minority leader seeks investigation
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, told The Center Square in an interview that there are enough concerns that there should be an investigation.
“It’s kind of stunning that they would say that, but the other hand, it’s not really that surprising,” he said. “We’ve had folks inside the agency (DCYF) tell us that they have concerns about fraud. This is no new issue.”
Braun said that while it’s not certain to what extent fraud is taking place, “we certainly have credible claims that is occurring, and it makes sense to me that we investigate these regardless.
“If there is fraud, there should be consequences,” he added. “If there’s not fraud, the public deserves to know at this point that their taxpayer money is being spent reasonably and responsibly. Either way, it deserves investigation.”
The Center Square reached out to DCYF requesting an interview to discuss the former Office of Child Care regional manager’s comments as well as Braun’s, but did not receive a response. The Center Square has previously requested an interview with Secretary Tana Senn, which also was not provided.
“Everybody has a different leadership style, I suppose, but she (Senn) certainly hasn’t been out in front and trying to give the people state of Washington confidence that the department is taking this seriously and getting after it,” Braun said.
Funding continues
The state has continued to provide funding as questions surrounding daycare subsidies grow.
“Then the governor announces another $57 million towards daycares in grants. It’s almost like it’s brazen” said Christian.
“And we’re going to block the names and phone numbers and business addresses for the folks who are getting grants. I mean, that’s ridiculous,” he added.
He was referring to Governor Bob Ferguson announcing last month that the Washington Department of Commerce and DCYF were awarding tens of millions in grants to 74 early learning providers across Washington.
The taxpayer funds are intended to create 2,056 new childcare spaces through the Early Learning Facilities (ELF) program.
The complete list of awarded projects can be found here.
However, many of the award recipients are unlisted, with no business name for the grant recipient.
They are simply listed as “family home facility” with the city noted, without any other identifying information.
In announcing the recent grants, DCYF said the law required it to omit the names and addresses of twenty childcare operations, yet nothing in the law they cited says business names and addresses must be concealed.
The RCW cited by DCYF and the Commerce department for omitting the names of the providers, RCW 42.56.640 came about as the result of an initiative adopted by the people in 2016 (I-1501) to protect seniors and vulnerable individuals from identity theft and other financial crimes by preventing the release of public records that could be used to victimize them.
The RCW does not mention protecting business names and addresses from those receiving taxpayer funds.
The Center Square asked Commerce for an explanation on applying the RCW to deny publication of the providers and received a response via email.
“Commerce relies on the state Attorney General’s Office for interpretation of such laws. The best way to proceed to get this information is to submit a public records request to ensure the information is handled appropriately,” wrote Amelia Lamb with Commerce.
“What happened to transparency in our state? When our own auditor has come out and says there’s questionable items going on here, one would think the legislature would be saying, ‘maybe we should look into this a little bit’? said Christian.
“But that’s even being blocked as much as possible. So, nothing to see here, keep moving on. Let’s give ’em more money.”
