Trouble began surfacing as early as 2014, when workers, DLI staff, and vocational counselors raised concerns about the school. By June 2019, DLI launched a formal audit covering July 2015 through June 2018. What it found was not encouraging. The school provided incomplete records in response to audit requests. Its minimum typing speed requirement for graduates was 20 words per minute – half the 40 words per minute considered average by most employers – and three out of 13 sampled graduates had not even met that low bar. When asked to identify graduates who found employment, the school named just 15 out of 388 workers who had attended during the audit period, producing a job placement rate of roughly 3.9 percent. Washington regulations require vocational providers to maintain at least a 50 percent placement rate.
