FINDING 2025-001 Information on the federal program: Subject: Special Education Cluster (IDEA) – Internal Controls Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Program: Special Education Grants to States, Special Education Preschool Grants Assistance Listings Numbers: 84.027, 84.027X, 84.173X Fed...
FINDING 2025-001 Information on the federal program: Subject: Special Education Cluster (IDEA) – Internal Controls Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Program: Special Education Grants to States, Special Education Preschool Grants Assistance Listings Numbers: 84.027, 84.027X, 84.173X Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): 22611-046-PN01, 22611-046-ARP, 22619-046-ARP Pass-Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Earmarking Audit Findings: Significant Deficiency Condition: An effective internal control system was not in place at the School Corporation in order to ensure compliance with requirements related to the grant agreement and earmarking compliance requirement. Context: The School Corporation is a member of the Porter County Education Services (Cooperative). During fiscal year 2023-2024, the Cooperative operated the special education program and spent the federal money on behalf of all its members. As the grant agreement was between the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and each member school, the School Corporation was responsible for ensuring and providing oversight of the Cooperative. The School Corporation did not have internal controls in place 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 non-public school students with disabilities was met for each member school. The Cooperative did not have effective internal controls to ensure non-public school expenditures were appropriately identified and reported. The Non-Public Proportionate Share expenditures for the 22611-046-PN01, 22611-046-ARP, and 22619-046-ARP grant awards could not be verified for the individual member schools. Total grant expenditures were posted as expended. The non-public proportionate share expenditures were determined by applying a percentage to the non-public school budgeted expenditures. As such, we were unable to identify if the minimum amount per each applicable member schools’ grant award was expended and properly reported to IDOE, as required. The lack of internal controls was isolated to the 22611-046-PN01, 22611-046-ARP, and 22619-046-ARP grant awards which were fully expended during fiscal year 2024. These three grant awards had minimum earmarking requirements for the Non-Public Proportionate Share of $39,016, $9,471, and $533, respectively. Views of Responsible Officials and Corrective Action Plan: Management agrees with the finding. The Cooperative has implemented additional internal controls which includes the following: Provider/Employee will submit payroll records/invoices by student services monthly/bi-monthly to the bookkeeper. Once payroll records or invoices are received, the CFO will prepare a spreadsheet that calculates the time/amounts serviced by the non-public school and member school. Once the total hours are calculated, a percentage based on total hours worked for each member school will be used to allocate the provider/employee time for each member school. This documentation will be attached to each reimbursement request. Management of the School Corporation will also implement an internal control to monitor the School Corporation’s non-public proportionate share requirements and request supporting documentation from the Cooperative to verify the minimum earmarking requirements are being met. Responsible Party and Timeline for Completion: Corrective action plan has been implemented as this finding impacted fiscal year 2024 but did not recur in fiscal year 2025. Jim Holifield, Chief Financial Officer, will oversee the corrective action plan to monitor the Cooperative on an ongoing basis.