Seattle’s reform push is hitting homelessness, schools, and streets all at once — and today, you can feel the ground moving pretty fast.
This is The Seattle Daily Fix. We’re looking at homelessness oversight, a new school cellphone policy, child care investments, crisis care on Capitol Hill, and Seattle’s bike-commute bragging rights.
Alright — let’s get into it.
First up: the county’s big move on KCRHA.
From Alejandra Guzman at FOX 13 Seattle:
The King County Council is moving to dissolve the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) and establish a new independent watchdog following a 90-day process to dismantle the agency. The move comes as a new forensic investigation revealed a "crumbling foundation" showing the agency has $13 million in unaccounted funds, including $8 million in unmatched funds and $4.26 million in overspending.
That is not a rounding error. If the agency built to coordinate the homelessness response can’t account for millions, then oversight is not a side issue anymore. That’s the main event.
Over on Reddit, r/SeattleWA had a pretty blunt reaction:
"Dissolve it so no one can be held accountable and more records get destroyed on the way out."
Yeah, the suspicion is easy to understand. Dissolving an agency can turn into a fog machine if the records, contracts, and decision trails aren’t locked down first. That’s why the Inspector General piece matters so much. Dissolution without evidence preservation is just municipal composting.
Also on r/SeattleWA, another commenter said:
"It's almost Iike we should have performance metrics tied to funding and review them each year, instead of writing blank checks to well-connected cronies sucking on the taxpayer teat."
Spicy wording, but the core point lands: homelessness dollars need performance metrics, audits, and consequences attached. If a system can’t explain where $13 million went, an annual review is not some bureaucratic luxury. It’s the floor.
And one more from r/SeattleWA:
"A useless agency since Day 1.
Marc Dones' personal piggy bank.
Now go get Marc Dones. Maybe he hasn't spent all the missing money yet."
We’re not turning Reddit allegations into verdicts about a named former leader. But if the records show misspending, conflicts, or negligence, then accountability has to follow the people and the paper trail. It can’t stop at changing the name on the org chart.
Next up, Seattle schools. From Claire Bryan at The Seattle Times:
Starting Monday, no phones will be allowed during the entire school day for all elementary and middle school students. For high schoolers, the policy is less strict — they won’t have phones in class but will be allowed to have phones during passing periods and at lunch. Exceptions to the policy will be honored for students who require access to devices for medical needs.
This is one of those policies where the idea is easy to understand, and the rollout is everything. If teachers become the phone police without real backup, the rule starts falling apart by Tuesday.
Over on Reddit, one r/Seattle commenter put it this way:
As an educator, I like this policy…
But implementing this during the worst fucking stretch of the year instead of on Day 1 of the 26-27 school year is borderline sadistic.
That is probably the most practical critique. Teachers can support the policy and still hate being handed a brand-new enforcement fight during the most chaotic stretch of the year. A reform can be right on the merits and still be rolled out like somebody lost a bet.
Another r/Seattle commenter said:
The allowance of cell phones for high schoolers reminds me when smoking cigarettes was allowed on campus then slowly got pushed away.
The cigarette analogy is funny because it works. Schools often phase out accepted distractions before everyone looks back and says, wait, why were we ever doing that? High school phone access at lunch may be the compromise for now, but if classrooms get calmer, that line could tighten.
And another r/Seattle commenter wrote:
Superintendent Shuldiner is smart to roll out this reform early in his tenure. Parents and teachers are both generally in favor of a personal device ban and as the article notes there are a number of states and districts that have already successfully put these policies into practice. There’s definitely more work to be done to advocate for better technology policies in SPS, but this is a big win that wouldn’t have happened without new reform-oriented leadership.
That’s a fair point. This does look like an early reform win for Shuldiner, especially because parents and teachers are unusually aligned here. The next test is whether SPS actually tracks the results: fewer disruptions, less burden on teachers, better engagement. Don’t just send the memo and spike the football.
On child care and family support, from King5:
SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on Tuesday announced a sweeping package of investments aimed at lowering costs for families and expanding access to education, child care and health services across the city. The six-year plan would implement the voter-approved Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy and fund programs ranging from early learning to job training.
This is the kind of city spending people can actually feel: preschool slots, child care relief, meals, mental health care. The politics are going to come down to execution, because big promises only matter if families see shorter waitlists and lower bills.
Now to crisis care. From Kean Mathis at The Spectator:
“Historically, we’ve had someone to call, which has been 9-8-8. We’ve had someone to respond, which are our normal crisis teams, and we’ve had folks to follow up on that plan,” Jennifer Winslow, strategic planning manager for King County’s Crisis Care Centers, said. “The piece that’s been missing is somewhere safe for individuals to go.
That gap is the thing. Crisis response can’t just be a phone number and a team headed somewhere if there’s nowhere safe for the person to land. A Capitol Hill center near Seattle University could take real pressure off the system — especially if it keeps people out of ERs and jails when what they need is care.
And on transportation, from Jason Sutich at MyNorthwest:
Seattle’s bicycling community notched more than 3.3 million miles in 2025, leading all U.S. cities in the number of people who chose to ride their bike to work. The data was provided by Strava, a fitness social media app that tracks users’ workouts in real time with GPS data, which the company shares with 4,000 city planners and government agencies to better understand commuting patterns.
Seattle being number one is genuinely impressive — and it raises the bar. If this many people are already riding, the infrastructure can’t keep pretending biking is some fringe hobby.
Over on Reddit, r/Seattle put it this way:
More protected bike infrastructure please! No flexpost garbage, more toronto style drop in barriers
Yes. If Seattle is already leading on bike commuting with an incomplete network, the city should stop treating protection like decoration. Flexposts are better than paint, sure. But concrete barriers tell families, delivery riders, and regular commuters that the lane is actually theirs.
Another r/Seattle commenter added:
It's mentioned in the article, but they are not counting any miles from cyclists who do not use the Strava app, so the raw numbers are definitely very underreported, but may still show some trends.
That caveat matters. Strava undercounts a lot of riders — especially people who are not turning their commute into a fitness dashboard. But it can still show useful patterns, as long as planners treat it as one signal, not the whole map.
And one more r/Seattle commenter said:
I'm still uncomfortable commuting by bike because of how many streets either lack any kind of bike lane or the bike lane abruptly ends. People still park on bike lanes. 90% of the places I need to go don't have anywhere to park a bike.
That’s the gap between being a top bike city and being an easy bike city. The commute numbers are great, but abrupt lane endings, blocked lanes, and nowhere to lock up are the daily failures that keep the next wave of riders in cars.
Links to every story we talked about today are in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can dig in there.
That’s The Seattle Daily Fix for Thursday, April 30th. This is a Lantern Podcast.