Finding 1200779 (2025-101)

Eligibility Documentation - Federal Agency: Department of Education. Award Name: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act. Program Year: 2025. Assistance Listing Number: 84.002A. Criteria: Eligible individuals are individuals who are at least 16 years of age, who are not enrolled or required to be enrolled in secondary school under state law, and who are basic skills deficient, do not have a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent and have not achieved an equivalent level of education, or are English language learners (29 USC 3272(4)). Condition: Students are required to fill out an application prior to being admitted to the program. The Center reviews the application and inputs the data into the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) system, however does not maintain the applications to support that the students met the eligibility requirements. Context: For twenty-five student selections, there was no documentation maintained to support student age. Cause: Documentation was shredded due to personal information. Effect: Documentation was not maintained to support compliance with the standards. Questioned Costs: None. Repeat Finding: No. Recommendation: Documentation should be maintained to support all eligible students enrolled in the program. Views of Responsible Parties: We concur with the finding. The absence of required eligibility documentation resulted primarily from destroying all personal information. We have implemented a policy to scan and maintain all student applications on the network.