North River School District Faces $22,000 State Funding Reduction
The North River School District is facing a $22,000 reduction in state funding after a Washington State Auditor’s report found the district overreported its special education enrollment during the 2024-2025 school year.
An assessment audit, published June 18, 2026, by the Office of the Washington State Auditor, revealed the district lacked adequate internal controls to ensure student evaluation files contained mandatory signature pages.
As a result, the district received state funding for special education students whose files lacked the required documentation.
In Washington state, public schools receive funding based partly on student enrollment figures reported to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
To qualify for special education funding, a student must be enrolled, have a current individualized education program and evaluation, and have received services on or before the monthly count date.
During the assessment, state examiners reviewed eight student files totaling 40 student count months.
They discovered that evaluations within these files did not always contain the required signature pages.
Consequently, auditors determined the district overreported 24 student count months to OSPI, leading to the district being overfunded by $22,000.
During the 2024-2025 school year, North River received $53,189 in state funding based on an annual average enrollment of 4.55 resident special education students.
State auditors attributed the reporting errors to a lack of oversight and dedicated resources.
“The District employee responsible for the administration of the special education program had many duties at the District and did not dedicate adequate resources to ensure required evaluations contained all elements,” the audit report stated.
The report also pointed out that the district lacked compensating internal controls to verify that the enrollment counts reported to OSPI were accurate and supported.
In its official written response included in the public audit report, the district agreed with the finding and attributed the compliance failures to a former staff member.
By directly quoting the district’s formal response to the state, the accountability for the errors is placed on the official record.
“The district’s previous administrator failed to fulfill the required duties of the Special Education Director,” the district’s response stated.
“Specifically, the administrator failed to ensure that all of the district’s files were completed with signed signature pages as required, resulting in non-compliance, an audit finding, and a $22,000.00 refund for the 2024-25 school year.”
North River School District No. 200 serves approximately 69 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade at its single school in Pacific County.
With General Fund operating expenditures of $2.5 million in fiscal year 2025, officials noted that a lump-sum repayment of the $22,000 would cause a “significant impact.”
Instead, the district has formally requested that OSPI deduct the funds from its monthly apportionment payments.
To prevent future reporting errors, the district reported it has overhauled its special education oversight.
According to its response, North River implemented enhanced supervisory controls by contracting with the Educational Service District 113 Special Ed Co-op, which provided a well-qualified special education director. The district has also hired an experienced special education teacher.
District officials stated that all corrective actions were fully implemented as of Sept. 1, 2025.
The State Auditor’s Office thanked the district for its cooperation and stated it will review the status of North River’s corrective actions during its next audit.
In other areas reviewed during the assessment, auditors noted that nothing came to their attention to suggest the district was not in substantial compliance with state laws, regulations, and its own policies.