Press Releases

School districts’ financial challenges are not the result of inaccurate student enrollment projections, according to a new report from the Office of the Washington State Auditor. 

Several public school districts are experiencing financial distress, and student enrollment has declined statewide. Legislators asked the State Auditor’s Office to determine whether districts’ financial challenges were linked to faulty projections of future student enrollment.  

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.

Technology is critical to providing public services, and audits from the State Auditor’s Office have become essential elements in overall government cybersecurity in the Evergreen state. Our Office developed a short overview of our work in cybersecurity in fiscal year 2026. 

Washington’s efforts to raise awareness of human trafficking have become outdated in some instances, but agencies generally follow the law, a new performance audit found. 

The latest audits of a troubled Mason County fire district show its well-documented disregard for the protection of public funds continued for years until its governing board was replaced in 2024.

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. 

Today the Office of the Washington State Auditor issued its third fraud investigation report in less than a decade for the town of Springdale, population 300. 

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: