WASHINGTON — Washington state leaders are warning that Somali daycare providers are facing threats and harassment over unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) told KIRO 7 that dozens of individuals have been impacted. Some have reported doxing, verbal harassment, threats of violence and death threats.
It comes after social media personalities posted viral videos in Minnesota claiming, with little evidence, that Somali-run daycare centers were committing fraud.
In response, the federal government began increasing investigations in the state and federal funding for child care in Minnesota was frozen.
The impact has snowballed across the country and impacted Somali residents in Washington. The state has one of the largest Somali populations in the country.
Several people began posting similar videos on social media about Seattle-area child care centers. In some cases, these individuals visited the childcare sites, filmed them and asked people on-site questions.
The actions led Washington Attorney General Nick Brown to issue a warning that Somali daycare operators were facing harassment and threats.
“Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation,” Brown wrote. “Neither is filming minors who may be in the home.
This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”
Hamdi Mohamed, Director of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, said the targeting of Somali providers has created “fear and disruptions for workers, families and children.”
“We must continue appropriate state and local oversight of childcare providers while also safeguarding them from political hate, intimidation, and violence,” Mohamed wrote in a statement. “Targeting providers based on who they are or where they come from is unacceptable.”
The fraud concerns have predominantly centered around the grants that child care facilities receive.
“We’ve been looking at the money that we directed child care centers for a few years now, before the big story broke in Minnesota,” said Jim Walsh, Chairman of Washington GOP.
Walsh said the systems in place to provide funding for child care centers are well-intended, but claimed there was a “lack of transparency” and a “lot of questions and not a lot of answers.”
Walsh believes there needs to be better vetting of child care facilities that receive state or federal funds.
“The details are still emerging, but we do have credible evidence of some of these daycare centers as having either they’re no longer existing, or perhaps they never existed as daycare centers,” Walsh said.
KIRO 7’s Madeline Ottilie asked Walsh where that evidence had come from.
Walsh said it came from independent and citizen journalists, using public records from the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and other state agencies to go “boots on the ground” to investigate and inspect child care centers.
“(They’re) finding that there is either not a child care center at the publicly documented address or a center that looks like it may have once existed but doesn’t exist anymore,” he said.
“You’ve got people going to these addresses, and looking in the windows for kids, and saying, ‘I don’t see a kid here.’ How does that translate into credible evidence of fraud?” KIRO 7’s Madeline Ottilie asked.
“In some cases, they’re private residences, where the person at the private residence says, ‘This is not a daycare. It has never been a daycare,’” Walsh said. “And we see that, according to the documentation posted by DCYF, this was supposed to be a daycare and received government grant money.”
KIRO 7 contacted DCYF, the department that oversees child care centers and provides them with grant funding to find out more about the vetting these child care centers go through.
The department noted it conducts unannounced site visits at every licensed child care provider at least once a year.
DCYF said it reviews all grant applications and ensures those grants are only awarded to eligible providers, which “means they are operating in good standing and do not have suspended, revoked or closed child care licenses.”
The department also said grant recipients agree to keep all receipts and documentation from purchases made with DCYF grant funds when they apply. The department then selects a random sample of grantees to submit receipts for audit.
If a provider is unable to submit receipts for purchases made with the grant funds, or if they have not spent the grant funds on allowable purchases, they will be required to return part or all of the funds to the state of Washington.
Separately, DCYF also pays for child care on behalf of eligible families under two child care subsidy programs. DCYF pays providers after services have been provided. Providers bill monthly for the services they provide.
The state’s Office of Fraud and Accountability (OFA) at the Department of Social and Health Services is responsible for investigating allegations of fraud.
According to that department’s latest report on the subsidy program, OFA efforts yielded zero convictions of child care providers for fraud in FY25.
It did identify more than $2 million in overpayments to providers in fiscal year 2025 as part of the subsidy payments. These were identified to be the result of providers not providing attendance records, provider overbilling, providers failing to provide records for services provided, department errors and “other.”
KIRO 7 asked the state if this money has been paid back and did not receive an answer.
If you suspect child care subsidy fraud, you can report it by calling the Washington State Fraud Hotline at 1‐800‐562‐6906 or visiting this website.
Providers can also contact the Office of the Attorney General to report hate crimes and bias by calling 1-855-225-1010. Interpreters are available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also report hate here.
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