A new audit from the Washington State Auditor’s Office warns that the IT system used to allocate funding for schools in our state is ‘unstable and at risk of failure.’
“Significant improvements can – and must – be made,” the audit states.
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI)’s 17-year-old system is responsible for allocating $30 billion to school districts every two years—serving roughly one million students.
The state auditor’s office launched its performance review of the system in April 2024 and concluded in October 2025. Testing was limited to three school districts because of the system’s complexity.
It found that sometimes staff have to rely on manual workarounds and that only nine employees oversee the system.
“In each case, we found coding discrepancies in which state law and state budget did not align,” the report reads. “They were relatively small discrepancies — for example, rounding to six decimal places instead of the required three. To reconcile the differences, OSPI followed the state budget.”
The auditor’s office warned that a failure in any one application that produced an incorrect funding calculation, and thus the wrong amount of funding, could disrupt schools’ ability to pay teachers and manage their operations.
Chris Reykdal, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, responded to the findings. In a note to the auditor’s office, he said they’ve begun the contracting process to solidify a replacement – which should be ready by the 2028-2029 school year.
In the meantime, the auditor’s office said OSPI should improve documentation and cross-training to reduce the risk of disruptions.
You can read the full audit report by clicking here.