Audit 392695

FINDING 2025-003 Subject: Special Education Cluster (IDEA) - Earmarking Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Programs: Special Education Grants to States, COVID-19 - Special Education Grants to States Assistance Listings Numbers: 84.027; 84.027X Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): 22611-001-PN01, 22611-001-ARP, 23611-001-PN01 Pass-Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Matching, Level of Effort, Earmarking Audit Findings: Significant Deficiency, Other Matters Condition and Context The School Corporation is a member of the Adams Wells Special Services Cooperative (Cooperative). During the audit period, the Cooperative operated the special education programs and spent the federal money on behalf of all its members. As the grant agreements were between the Indiana Department of Education and each member school, the School Corporation was responsible for ensuring and providing oversight of the Cooperative. INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 19 NORTH ADAMS COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) The School Corporation did not have internal controls in place during fiscal year 2023-2024 to ensure that the Cooperative complied with the earmarking requirements. The Cooperative did not have adequate procedures in place to ensure that the required level of expenditures for nonpublic school students with disabilities was met for each member school. The Cooperative did not have effective internal controls to ensure nonpublic school expenditures were appropriately identified and reported. During 2023-2024, the staff member providing the services to students did not differentiate between their hours worked with preschool and elementary students on their timesheet. Preschool and elementary services are funded by different grants. As the hours for the elementary services were unavailable, we were unable to determine what hours were worked that applied to the elementary grant. The lack of internal controls and noncompliance was isolated to the 2023-2024 school year. Criteria 2 CFR 200.303 states in part: "The non-Federal entity must: (a) Establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the non-Federal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. These internal controls should be in compliance with guidance in 'Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government' issued by the Comptroller General of the United States or the 'Internal Control Integrated Framework', issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). . . ." 2 CFR 200.403 states in part: "Except where otherwise authorized by statute, costs must meet the following general criteria in order to be allowable under Federal awards: . . . (g) Be adequately documented. . . ." 2 CFR 200.208(b) states in part: "The Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity may adjust specific Federal award conditions as needed . . ." 511 IAC 7-34-7(b) states: "The public agency, in providing special education and related services to students in nonpublic schools must expend at least an amount that is the same proportion of the public agency total subgrant under 20 U.S.C. 1411(f) as the number of nonpublic school students with disabilities, who are enrolled by their parents in nonpublic schools within its boundaries, is to the total number of students with disabilities of the same age range." Cause Through inquiry of management and review of documentation, we determined the Cooperative was tracking the hours spent at all nonpublic schools associated with the member schools. However, the staff members were not tracking their time within the nonpublic school between the preschool hours and elementary school hours. The discussion with the Cooperative revealed they were unaware of the requirement to track funds separately. INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 20 NORTH ADAMS COMMUNITY SCHOOLS SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) Effort Without proper implementation of effectively designed system of internal controls, the Cooperative did not track expenditures for nonpublic services between preschool grant funds and Part B grant funds. Consequently, the amounts requested for reimbursement were not supported by actual hours worked between the preschool and elementary School but rather the combination of nonpublic proportionate share amounts for both grants. Recommendation Management of the Cooperative should develop written policies and procedures which would require tracking of actual nonpublic proportionate share expenditures by grant. Documentation should be maintained to show how these expenditures are being tracked to ensure compliance with the Earmarking requirements. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs identified. Views of Responsible Officials For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.