Frequently Asked Questions

As many of you unfortunately are aware, a scam involving fraudulent unemployment claims is running rampant through Washington State. This scam has already impacted over a hundred of our Ferndale School District employees. Our Human Resources Department is reaching out to those employees who have been impacted to help them resolve the situation. And, of course, law enforcement is involved at the state and federal levels.  

Because awareness of this scam could be important for everyone, I want to share a bit of additional information with our community.

A fraudulent filing indicates that an unknown third party likely has access to one or more elements of someone’s personal information (name, employer, social security number, etc.). As the current situation proves, this information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of identity theft. Anyone who suspects they have been subject to identity theft should contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies for further assistance. They are as follows:

• Experian [www.experian.com] 1-888-397-3742
• Trans Union [www.transunion.com] 1-855-681-3196
• Equifax [www.equifax.com] 1-888-548-7878

One of the ways that this fraud is happening is through State of Washington, Secure Access Washington (SAW) accounts. If you have a SAW account, you can check to see if your account is secure by following these steps:

1.    Navigate to https://secure.esd.wa.gov/home/

2.    Login with your SAW information. Many state functions including license renewal use these accounts, so it is very likely you are already registered.

3.    Once you’re in, follow the links to apply for unemployment. You’re not actually going to apply. The first step is identity verification. Fill out the requested information.

4.    This is where you should pay special attention. If your information is tied to an email address that is not yours, you may be a victim of fraud.

5.    If you find that you are the victim of fraud, go to ESD’s fraud page and report it. 

Unemployment benefits fraud

**Many thanks to Ferndale resident Sara O’Connor for sharing the information provided in these steps**

Additional resources are available at this link:

Recovering identity theft or fraud

The answer is yes. We are continuing to make progress on the projects included in the bond package Ferndale voters approved in February 2019.

Bond funds are completely separate from school district operating funds, which include levy dollars. We are not allowed to use bond funds to backfill any loss of funding created by the levy failure -- even if we wanted to. We are committed to using bond funds in the way our community intended them to be used.

With that said, I (Superintendent Dr. Linda Quinn) am pleased to report our bond projects are proceeding on budget and on schedule. I have been documenting our progress in weekly Bond Updates since shortly after the ballot measure was approved. In fact, I sent my 61st Friday progress report earlier today. If you are not currently subscribing to the weekly emails, you can do so at the following link: 

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OSPI stands for Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Led by Superintendent Chris Reykdal, OSPI is the primary agency charged with overseeing public K–12 education in Washington state. Working with the state's 295 public school districts and six state-tribal education compact schools, OSPI allocates funding and provides tools, resources, and technical assistance so every student in Washington is provided a high-quality public education. OSPI is housed in the Old Capitol Building in Olympia.

Since the onset of the pandemic, OSPI has established a special section of its website to house Covid-19 Guidance and Resources, which you can access here:

Covid-19 guidance resources