After Concerns About Fraud, Washington State Obscures Childcare Funding Recipients

Since the beginning of this year, I have co-authored several articles about Washington State with my brilliant friend Malia Marks. Two of our stories thus far have uncovered racially discriminatory programs that likely violate the 14th Amendment: Washington State’s Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises offers special certifications and privileges to small businesses owned by members of racial minorities, while the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) has awarded millions over the years to childcare providers through an “equity” grant that considers the race of children enrolled at a facility.

Our other investigation focused on Somali-owned daycares in the state, which are overrepresented by at least 20 times what would be expected of the Somali population share. We found that plenty of these businesses had reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue despite being licensed to care for only a few children. Additionally, several Somali-managed nonprofit organizations and businesses focused on childcare services that received six-figure government funding appeared to be defunct, or at least barely operating. For example, when we called an organization that brands itself as a “state certified private school,” an automated message offered us “special offers” on “dream vacations.” (To watch an entertaining video of Malia visiting some purported childcare facilities during operating hours, see this link. Who would have guessed that nobody would answer the door at a home listed as the registered address for two daycare businesses — including one that reported nearly $2 million in revenue since opening in 2023?)

You might expect that reporting like this — together with the Trump administration charging individuals for fraud-related crimes in Minnesota and the Washington State auditor concluding that a majority of the DCYF’s audited provider payments were overpaid in a single year — would prompt the state’s officials to promote enhanced measures for financial transparency. At present, there appear to be few mechanisms in place designed to ensure financial integrity; even the state auditor announced that “the [DCYF] does not review supporting documentation before paying child care providers.” Since daycare fraud has grown into a national scandal in light of Nick Shirley’s reporting, it would behoove public officials to reassure the public that internal investigations will recover “missing” funds and that law enforcement officers will tackle the scammers. It seems reasonable to assume that the state would temporarily suspend funding for childcare-related programs until the authorities have penalized fraudsters, removed incompetent bureaucrats from their positions, and instituted appropriate safeguards to prevent future wrongdoing.

But that hasn’t happened. Instead, Washington State’s Democrats are continuing to support childcare providers. Governor Bob Ferguson announced last week that over $55 million in grants will be distributed to 74 "early learning providers” through the Early Learning Facilities program operated by the state Department of Commerce in partnership with the DCYF. To date, more than $235 million has been awarded through that program.

But the particularly crazy part of the governor's announcement is that the state -- seemingly aware of public concerns about financial abuse -- evidently decided to decrease transparency. The state Department of Commerce published a spreadsheet of the Early Learning Facilities grant recipients for the 2025–27 cycle, but more than 20 of the businesses are in-home care providers labeled simply as a “Family Home Facility” to “protect sensitive personal information.” In other words, the government is concealing the fact that the entities are receiving as much as $303,370 of government funds through a program operated in part by a department that has been confirmed to mismanage funds in an industry that is known to steal government funds.

Of course, if these enterprises are entirely legitimate and respectable, then there should be no concern that private citizens and reporters might independently review their public business records. And since the purpose of the grants is to improve childcare facilities so that there are more slots for children to enroll, we would expect the businesses to be named so that locals can plan on enrolling their kids. Unfortunately, the only way I can interpret such a cryptic document is by assuming that the government is committed to hiding fraud rather than preventing it.