(The Center Square) – As more is revealed about the potential daycare fraud within the Somali community in Washington state and the Department of Children, Youth & Families scrambles to respond, one large daycare provider is sharing his frustrations with The Center Square.
On Monday, The Center Square visited several Somali-run home daycares in Federal Way, but found only one home with a few children inside. Others did not answer knocks on the front door, grew confrontational – calling the police, or conceded they don’t currently have children enrolled.
“Anyone who's in the industry is like flabbergasted,” said daycare owner David McMullan, who also chairs the Pierce County Republicans. “How are they getting that money and we're not?”
McMullan said he and his wife got into the daycare business a few years ago.
“We have Little Patriots Academy. We have two currently functioning daycare centers. We also have a preschool called Buttons and Bows that's in Puyallup. We've spent a lot of time with DCYF and all the different regulations that make it very difficult to actually operate a daycare center,” he said.
McMullan said that he had no issues with DCYF treatment per se.
“They're quite responsive and good to work with. So, I don't have anything to say about the department itself,” he explained. “But we have to jump through a lot of hoops just to get the things we need to function and stay profitable, especially when they're not increasing our subsidies, but demanding that we pay our teachers more.”
He noted the Jan. 1 increase in the minimum wage to $17.13 an hour is another hit to their bottom line.
“We don't want to turn away families that have to be on subsidies because they need it,” McMullan said. “I could fill up my daycares and say no subsidies, but then there [are] a lot of people [who] are trying to get their kids in daycare so they can work.
“If it's done properly, it helps families out. So, I'm never going to be one of those people [who] says cut all subsidies.”
McMullan has no issues with the Somali community, but indicated he was shocked to hear about the massive subsidies some facilities are receiving, according to state fiscal websites.
“The bottom line is per head, per child, it's about $1,500, $1,600 tops, so how are they getting that much?” McMullan asked.
For small home daycare centers with only a handful of children, monthly payouts appear to show that many providers receive tens of thousands of dollars, according to fiscal.wa.gov.
“So, I want to see which program gets them that much money per head because I want to get involved in it,” McMullan said.
DCYF, which oversees taxpayer subsidies for licensed daycares, tells The Center Square that it investigates all reports of alleged fraud.
“We take fraud seriously,” DCYF Director of External Communications Nancy Gutierrez emailed The Center Square. “Washington state utilizes a variety of measures to minimize fraud. For example, DCYF conducts unannounced site visits at every licensed childcare provider at least once per year.”
She told The Center Square that DCYF also conducts random audits to confirm the accuracy of payments made to providers.
“In 2024, the Child Care Subsidy Program Quality Assurance unit conducted approximately 1,440 audits of child care provider payments,” Gutierrez said. “This information is all public, and you can read the most recent report here: Child Care Subsidy Program Overpayment Report.”
Gutierrez did not respond to a request for an interview with DCYF Secretary Tana Senn, or to questions about the extremely large monthly payouts to small home daycare providers.
Meanwhile, both DCYF and state Attorney General Nick Brown this week put out warnings to daycare providers to report any “harassment” from journalists or citizen reporters who have been door-knocking on many Somali-run child care facilities this week.
In response, U.S. Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights Director Harmeet Dhillon threatened Brown with potential federal action if his office's actions were found to unconstitutionally chill the free speech rights of journalists.
