Audit 377931

Repeat Finding? No Program Identification: Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education Pass‐through Entity: California Department of Education Program Names: Title I, Part A Grants: Title I, Part A, Basic Grants Local-Income and Neglected (AL No. 84.010) ESEA, School Improvement Grant Funding for LEAs (AL No. 84.010) Criteria: ESEA sections 1111(h)(1)(C)(iii)(II) and 8101(23), (25) (20 USC 6311(h)(1)(C)(iii)(II) and 7801(23), (25))) require a local educational agency to have official written documentation that a student enrolled in another school or in a educational program that culminates in the award of a regular high school diploma in order to remove a student from the graduation cohort. A student who is retained in grade, enrolled in a GED program, or leaves school for any other reason may not be counted as having transferred out for the purpose of calculating graduation rate and must remain in the adjusted cohort. Condition: During our testing of compliance and controls over the graduation cohort, we identified two instances in which the District was unable to provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that the students enrolled in another school or in a educational program that culminates in the award of a regular high school diploma. Context: Exceptions were noted in two out of the fourteen pupils sampled. Questioned Costs: None. Cause: Lack of review process to ensure that when a student is removed from the graduation cohort proper documentation is obtained and maintained to support the student’s removal from the graduation cohort. Effect: School sites’ graduation rate will be overstated on the school sites’ annual report cards. Recommendation: We recommend the District train school site staff on allowable documentation to remove students from a graduation cohort as well as other cohort codes. Subsequently, the District should assist school sites in developing the record retention process to ensure documentation is available upon request. Views of Responsible Officials: Annual training is provided to the school office staff at the August enrollment and attendance meeting. Due to this finding, additional reminder training was provided to all school office staff on December 4th and 5th 2025. The policies and procedures related to the training are on a share drive to be accessed at any time.