Finding:
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families did not have adequate internal controls over and did not comply with health and safety requirements for the Child Care and Development Fund program.
Questioned Costs: Assistance Listing #
93.575
93.575 COVID-19
93.596 Amount
$0
Statu...
Finding:
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families did not have adequate internal controls over and did not comply with health and safety requirements for the Child Care and Development Fund program.
Questioned Costs: Assistance Listing #
93.575
93.575 COVID-19
93.596 Amount
$0
Status: Corrective action in progress
Corrective
Action:
The Department is strongly committed to ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of all children in care. The Department partially concurs with this finding and provides the following details of corrective action taken:
Licensed providers:
During state fiscal year 2024 the Department completed 100% of on-site monitoring visits. Of the cases identified by the State Auditor’s Office (SAO), the average follow-up visit was delayed by 11 business days. Although the follow-up visits were not completed within the timelines required, 100% of the follow-up visits occurred. The Department is focused on strengthening internal controls around all health and safety requirements and is confident that corrective actions taken will improve this area moving forward.
Additionally, the Department:
• Created the option to document on the monitoring checklist when a non-compliance item is corrected on-site during the monitoring visit.
• Developed and implemented a monitoring recheck tool in the WA Compass system to verify tracking and monitoring requirements are completed prior to cases being marked as complete within the system.
• Implemented data-driven decisions to assist providers and their staff to meet health and safety requirements.
• Established new licensing staff positions to create a pathway for advancement to assist with staff recruitment efforts.
• Created a new unit of licensing staff in King County to assist with caseload increases in the fastest growing provider area in Washington.
• Implemented new recruitment and training plans for child care licensors, which has enabled new licensing staff to complete monitoring visits at the same rate as experienced staff.
License-exempt family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers:
As part of the 2023 corrective action plan, the Department created an enhancement to the WA Compass system to better track and monitor FFN health and safety requirements with a dashboard.
To better document monitoring compliance for program audit, the Department will work with the Information Technology Division to develop a report that will capture the task lists on the dashboard at the start of the month for the License Exempt Specialist team.
The conditions noted in this finding were previously reported in findings 2023-064, 2022-045, 2021-039, 2020-042, 2019-039, 2018-035, 2017-025, 2016-022, and 2015-024.
Completion
Date:
Estimated May 2025
Agency
Contact:
Stefanie Niemela
Audit Liaison
PO Box 40970
Olympia, WA 98504-0970
(360) 725-4402
stefanie.niemela@dcyf.wa.gov