Serious Allegations, No Answers and DCYF Leader Nowhere to Be Found
The longer Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and its Secretary Tana Senn refuse to speak plainly about serious allegations of fraud and missing oversight records, the clearer it becomes that this is not a communications failure — it is a leadership failure.
Multiple investigations and media reports have now documented years of missing reports, weak enforcement, and casual dismissals of credible concerns involving state-funded childcare providers. Yet DCYF Secretary Tana Senn, who leads the agency responsible for safeguarding both vulnerable children and hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, has offered no meaningful public explanation. No accounting. No corrective plan. No acknowledgment of how such basic oversight failures were allowed to persist for years.
KOMO News reporting revealed that required records meant to track spending and provider compliance were missing for extended periods — not weeks or months, but years. When asked about those gaps, DCYF officials reportedly downplayed their significance rather than confront the implications. Those records exist for one reason: to ensure public funds are being used lawfully and children are being placed in safe, legitimate care environments. Their absence is not a technical oversight. It is a systemic breakdown.
The response from DCYF leadership has been striking not just for what it says, but for what it refuses to address. Secretary Senn has not publicly answered how many reports are missing, who knew about the problem, or what internal accountability — if any — has followed. Even as lawmakers have been pressed on these failures, Democratic leaders have repeatedly avoided direct answers and appear far more concerned about people asking about fraud than they are about the fraud itself.
Attorney General Nick Brown has entered the conversation, but largely around the reaction to these allegations rather than their substance. Brown has warned against harassment and “vigilante” investigations, emphasizing that concerns should be reported through official channels. That caution, echoed in media coverage, does not absolve DCYF leadership of responsibility for creating the conditions that allowed these questions to go unanswered for so long.
Brown has also stated publicly that there is currently “no evidence of a crime.” But when an agency lacks years of required documentation, the absence of evidence may simply reflect the absence of oversight. As The Center Square has reported, DCYF’s failures have made it difficult — if not impossible — to verify how taxpayer dollars were spent or whether providers complied with basic requirements.
This is not about viral videos or social media speculation. It is about an agency that failed to perform its most basic duties and has since failed to explain itself. Leadership means confronting uncomfortable facts head-on, not hoping attention fades.
AG Brown has said DCYF is his “client” and accordingly, he will not investigate the agency. The state auditor has said they will not be doing any future audits of DCYF. And Tana Senn’s silence signals to staff, providers, lawmakers, and the public that accountability is optional.
Despite strong indications of widespread fraud, no one in Washington with the authority to do anything about it seems to have any interest in doing so.
This is not leadership. It is an abdication of responsibility.
The stakes could not be higher. DCYF oversees programs that serve children who cannot advocate for themselves. It administers billions in state and federal funds. Trust in those systems depends on transparency and enforcement — both of which appear to have been lacking.
This controversy should have triggered a push for tougher oversight. Instead, bills like SB 5926, introduced by Sen. Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island), actually reduce reporting requirements at the very moment DCYF’s failures demand more transparency, not less. Without a full public accounting from Secretary Senn, scaling back oversight risks locking taxpayers and parents into a system that remains unexamined and uncorrected.
On the flip side, bills like SB 6205 from Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia) and HB 2509 from Travis Couture (R-Allyn) would strengthen accountability, oversight, and transparency for housing assistance programs and entities receiving state funding. It’s quite evident those bills are desperately needed.
Washingtonians deserve answers. Parents deserve assurance that childcare subsidies are monitored responsibly. Taxpayers deserve to know where their money went. And lawmakers deserve forthright testimony from the agency charged with enforcing the rules.
Secretary Tana Senn should immediately issue a detailed public statement addressing these failures: what went wrong, how long it went on, and what reforms are now in place. Attorney General Brown should clarify whether his office is reviewing the underlying oversight failures — not just the public reaction to them.
Anything less reinforces the perception that state leadership is circling the wagons instead of confronting the truth.
To demand investigations and accountability from DCYF, you can contact them here.
Silence is not accountability. And it is long past time for DCYF’s leadership to speak.