When payments to a government vendor rise unusually fast, it can create concerns about possible fraud or improper payments. However, steep increases in vendor payments can also be legitimate and appropriately approved, as a new performance audit found to be the case at one of Washington’s largest state agencies.
New safeguards are in place for Washington special education students placed with private contractors, but gaps remain in those reforms. Some schools do not visit facilities in-person every year as required, and some state investigations are not conducted as quickly as they could be, a new performance audit found.
Washington’s efforts to raise awareness of human trafficking have become outdated in some instances, but agencies generally follow the law, a new performance audit found.
A landmark Washington initiative succeeded in making home care patients safer but also created a long, arduous certification process for their aides – a process about two-thirds of applicants never complete, according to a new audit.
The IT system used to distribute funding to Washington’s 300 schools and districts, serving 1 million students, is both critical to public education and extremely complex.
Washington’s police officers are far from completing training mandated by Initiative 940, a new performance audit found.
The initiative, which became the Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act, requires 40 hours of continuing training for law enforcement officers. The state Criminal Justice Training Commission developed a curriculum that includes:
A program intended to help underserved people access online services repeatedly failed to follow state guidance – and at times intentionally ignored grant requirements, a new performance audit found: Assessing the Department of Commerce's Management of the Digital Navigator Program (PDF).
Several courts in Washington are interested in expanding alternatives to bail, but they appear to use such pretrial services infrequently today and face barriers to doing more, a new performance audit found.
A new performance audit of four public charter schools across Washington found they identified and served at-risk students appropriately, including working with English language learners and homeless students.
Washington’s public schools properly identified special education students and spent 26% percent more than the state provided to serve them, according to a new performance audit.
The Legislature asked the Office of the Washington State Auditor to review the prevalence of disabilities in student populations in the state and compare that need to the funding available to identify and serve special education students. Auditors were also tasked with determining whether any populations were under evaluated or underserved in special education.