Auditors found that the 17-year-old system relied heavily on manual workarounds, outdated infrastructure and a small group of permanent employees to keep it running.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — A new audit by the Washington State Auditor’s Office warns that decades-old computer systems used to distribute billions in school funding across the state are outdated, fragile and at risk of failure.
The audit examined the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (OSPI) allocation system, which counts funding for more than 300 school districts, charter schools and tribal schools serving approximately 1 million students. Auditors found that the 17-year-old system relied heavily on manual workarounds, outdated infrastructure and a small group of permanent employees to keep it running.
State Auditor Pat McCarthy said the system’s complexity and age pose significant risks, and OSPI is working to replace the system, expected around the 2028-29 school year.
“They believed the system was so fragile that they used the term catastrophic failure,” McCarthy said, citing a third-party review commissioned by OSPI.
Audit findings include:
– The core system is supported by eight feeder systems running on the same infrastructure
– Fund calculation requires 128 “input values” and 119 layers of “calculation details”
– OSPI lacks some controls designed to prevent accidental or intentional data modification
– Much of the operation of the system depends on institutional knowledge rather than documented procedures
Auditors said the state has provided funding to OSPI to begin replacing the system, but warned the agency should simultaneously improve documentation and cross-training to reduce the risk of outages.
“If you include tribal schools and charter schools, that’s how more than 300 school districts are funded,” McCarthy said. “We think there are things they should be doing as they get to the new system.”
The full report includes recommendations aimed at improving reliability and reducing the risk of system failure before the replacement is completed, the National Audit Office said.
