Audit 383589

ELMWOOD PARK COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT 401 06-016-4010-26 SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS Year Ending June 30, 2025 SECTION III - FEDERAL AWARD FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS Year originally reported? 3. Federal Program Name and Year: National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program 4. Project No.: 25-4210-00 & 25-4220-00 5. AL No.: 10.555 & 10.553 6. Passed Through: 7. Federal Agency: Illinois State Board of Education U.S. Department of Agriculture 8. Criteria or specific requirement (including statutory, regulatory, or other citation) Per 2 CFR §200.303, non-federal entities must establish and maintain effective internal control over federal awards to provide reasonable assurance of compliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the award. Additionally, 7 CFR §210.8(a) requires school food authorities to establish internal controls to ensure the accuracy of meal counts prior to submitting monthly claims for reimbursement. These controls must include a review process before submission to verify that claims are correct 9. Condition The District does not have an adequate review process in place for meal count claims prior to submission. Claims prepared by one individual are submitted without independent verification. As a result, the district reported an incorrect lunch count for January 2025. This error appears to be isolated to January; however, it would likely have been prevented if a review process were in place. 10. Questioned Costs No reportable questioned costs identified. 11. Context The District participates in the National School Lunch Program (ALN 10.555) and School Breakfast Program (ALN 10.553), which require accurate reporting of meal counts to determine reimbursement. Meal count claims are prepared monthly by a designated staff member and submitted to the state agency for reimbursement. Currently, the district does not have a formal process for independent review of these claims prior to submission. This lack of review contributed to an error in January 2025, when the district reported fewer lunches than were actually served. We reviewed a non-statistical sample of meal claims, and aside from the month of January 2025, noted no similar issues. 12. Effect The District claimed fewer meals than were actually served for January 2025, resulting in lower reimbursement than it was entitled to under the National School Lunch Program. While the error appears isolated to January, the lack of an independent review increases the risk of similar underclaims or overclaims in the future. 13. Cause The district did not implement a secondary review of meal count claims before submission. 14. Recommendation The District should implement a formal review process for all meal count claims prior to submission. This process should include independent verification by someone other than the preparer to ensure accuracy and compliance. 15. Management's response The District will implement a system in which meal count claims will have secondary approval by the CSBO.

ELMWOOD PARK COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT 401 06-016-4010-26 SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS Year Ending June 30, 2025 SECTION III - FEDERAL AWARD FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS Year originally reported? 3. Federal Program Name and Year: Title I Grants to Local Education Agencies 4. Project No.: 24-4300-00, 25-4300-00, 24-4331-PL & 25-4331-00 5. AL No.: 84.010 6. Passed Through: 7. Federal Agency: Illinois State Board of Education U.S. Department of Education 8. Criteria or specific requirement (including statutory, regulatory, or other citation) Federal regulations (2 CFR §200.302 and Title I program requirements) require recipients to maintain accurate and verifiable records to support data submitted in funding applications. 9. Condition The District receives Title I funding and determines eligibility for schoolwide programs based on attendance numbers derived from free and reduced lunch counts. During the audit, we noted that the district’s process for compiling these attendance numbers involves the grant manager obtaining a report from the Business Office, which is generated from the food service platform as of a specific day. However, the district was unable to reproduce the report used to complete the Title I application and supporting documentation for the reported figures was not available for review. 10. Questioned Costs No reportable questioned costs identified. 11. Context The District receives Title I funding, which is allocated based on student poverty levels. To determine eligibility for schoolwide programs, the District includes attendance numbers in its Title I application, calculated using free and reduced lunch counts. These counts are critical because they establish whether a school meets the threshold for operating a schoolwide program under Title I guidelines. As part of the audit, we selected a non-statistical sample of schools included in the application to review the underlying support for the reported attendance numbers. This approach was intended to verify whether the district maintained documentation to substantiate the data submitted. 12. Effect Without adequate documentation, the District cannot demonstrate the accuracy of the attendance numbers used to determine eligibility for schoolwide programs. This increases the risk of noncompliance with Title I requirements and could impact funding determinations. 13. Cause The District does not have a formal process to retain or archive the specific report used to populate attendance numbers in the Title I application. Additionally, the food service data fluctuates due to student enrollments and withdrawals, and the system does not maintain historical snapshots of these counts. 14. Recommendation The District should implement procedures to retain supporting documentation for all data submitted in Title I applications. This may include saving a copy of the food service report used, maintaining historical records, and establishing a formal review process to ensure data accuracy and reproducibility. 15. Management's response The District will maintain all reports used to compile attendance figures for the Title I grant.