The School Bond Guarantee Program provides credit enhancement to voter-approved general obligation (GO) bonds issued by school districts. The program provides savings to state taxpayers by pledging the full faith and credit of the state to the payment of voter-approved school district GO bonds. This provides the bonds with the state’s strong credit rating.

The program is authorized in 39.98 RCW.

The administrative rules are found in WAC 210-02.

School Bonds totaling over $24.6 billion have been guaranteed by the program. It is estimated that the program saves taxpayers around $11 million annually. The state has not been called upon to pay debt service on any school debt.

As of January 1, 2019:

• Number of school districts with outstanding bonds guaranteed by program: 177
• Number of bond issues guaranteed by program that have outstanding balances: 469
• Aggregate total principal amount outstanding on bond issues guaranteed: $13,484,894,569.90

Program Documents

• Checklist for School Bond Guarantee Application (PDF)
• School Bond Guarantee Application (Word)
• Program Description for POS/OS (Word)(PDF)
• Allocation Report by Bond Issue (Word)(PDF)
• Continuing Disclosure Certificate (PDF)