Finding Text
FINDING 2025-002 Subject: Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies - Eligibility Federal Agency: Department of Education Federal Program: Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies Assistance Listings Number: 84.010 Federal Award Numbers and Years (or Other Identifying Numbers): S010A230014, S010A240014 Pass-Through Entity: Indiana Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Eligibility Audit Findings: Material Weakness, Modified Opinion Condition and Context Eligibility for Title I is determined on the Eligible School Summary of the Tile I Application. Enrollment and Poverty numbers are automatically pulled from the Indiana Department of Education's (IDOE) Official Pupil Enrollment count for each school into the Eligible School Summary page of the Tile I application. The counts that are prepopulated should be based on the School Corporation's records as of October of the prior fiscal year. During the audit period, the School Corporation submitted two Title I Applications. The School Corporation was required to use the October 2022 Real Time Report data for the fiscal year 2023-2024 Title I application and the October 2023 Real Time Report data for the 2024-2025 Title I application submitted to the IDOE. Data to be submitted included student socioeconomic status information. Of the 25 students tested, the School Corporation could not provide documentation supporting enrollment status for 1 student or the socioeconomic status for 3 students. The lack of internal controls and noncompliance were systemic issues throughout the audit period. 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 200.334 states in part: "Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other non-Federal entity records pertinent to a Federal award must be retained for a period of three years from the date of submission of the final expenditure report or, for Federal awards that are renewed quarterly or annual, from the date of submission of the quarterly or annual financial report, respectively, as reported to the Federal awarding agency or pass-through entity in the case of a subrecipient. . . ." INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS 17 LAKELAND SCHOOL CORPORATION SCHEDULE OF FINDINGS AND QUESTIONED COSTS (Continued) 34 CFR 200.78(a)(1) states: "After reserving funds, as applicable, under § 200.77, including funds for equitable services for private school students, their teachers, and their families, an LEA must allocate funds under this subpart to school attendance areas and schools, identified as eligible and selected to participate under section 1113(a) or (b) of the ESEA, in rank order on the basis of the total number of public school children from low-income families in each area or school." Cause The School Corporation did not have effective internal controls in place to ensure documentation was complete for all student enrollment and socioeconomic statuses. Effect Without the proper implementation of an effectively designed system of internal controls, the internal control system cannot be capable of effectively preventing, or detecting and correcting, material noncompliance. As a result, documentation was not complete to ensure all student enrollment and socioeconomic statuses in the Title I Application were accurate. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs identified. Recommendation We recommended that management of the School Corporation design and implement a proper system of internal controls, including policies and procedures that would ensure documentation is complete for all student enrollment and socioeconomic statuses. Views of Responsible Officials For the views of responsible officials, refer to the Corrective Action Plan that is part of this report.