HB 2593 Washington House · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Addressing school district accounting, budgeting, and reporting requirements.

HB 2593 requires Washington school districts to maintain minimum general fund balances at year-end, based on their size: districts with 2,000+ students must keep at least 6% of their prior year's state apportionment, while smaller districts must keep 8%. School districts falling below these thresholds will be placed under "formal financial monitoring" by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction starting in 2027-28. Monitored districts must then submit detailed monthly financial reports - including expenditures, revenue, cash balances, and debt - starting in 2028-29. This bill directly affects all public school districts in Washington, with smaller districts facing stricter reserve requirements. The goal is to improve fiscal oversight through standardized reporting and early intervention for districts at risk of financial instability.

Issues: ✓ Budget & Taxes

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 20, 2026 Last action Feb 19, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Bill → Substitute Bill · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to shift the focus from requiring all school districts to maintain specific fund balance percentages to placing only districts with low balances under formal financial monitoring. The new version removes mandatory minimum fund balance targets for all districts and replaces them with a monitoring system that provides technical assistance to struggling districts, aiming to prevent binding state conditions while still ensuring financial oversight.

Scope change

The bill's scope changed from applying mandatory fund balance rules to all school districts to applying financial monitoring requirements only to districts with general fund balances below specific thresholds.

REQUIREMENT

Removed the requirement for all school districts to maintain a minimum fund balance between 6% and 12% (or 8% and 34% for smaller districts) of their prior year's state apportionment.

MONITORING

Added a requirement for the Superintendent of Public Instruction to place school districts with low fund balances under formal financial monitoring starting in the 2027-28 school year.

ENFORCEMENT

Changed the enforcement mechanism from mandatory fund balance restrictions to a system where the Superintendent provides technical assistance to monitored districts to avoid stricter binding conditions.

TIMELINE

Adjusted the effective date for financial data reporting requirements to apply only to districts placed under formal financial monitoring.

TECHNICAL

Added a provision allowing the Superintendent to adopt rules to implement the new monitoring and reporting sections.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 9, 2026

Committee

Referred to Rules 2 Review.

lower

Feb 9, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; without recommendation.

lower

Feb 9, 2026

Lower · Passed

Executive action taken in the House Committee on Appropriations at 10:30 AM.

lower

Feb 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

Public hearing in the House Committee on Appropriations at 10:30 AM.

lower

Feb 4, 2026

Committee

Referred to Appropriations.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Minority; do not pass.

lower

Feb 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

Executive action taken in the House Committee on Education at 4:00 PM.

lower

Jan 26, 2026

Lower · Passed

Public hearing in the House Committee on Education at 1:30 PM.

lower

1 primary · 2 co-sponsors