Finding Text
2024-002. Allowable Costs/Cost Principles: Allowable Program Costs
United States Department of Education, Passed Through New York State, Department of Education:
Special Education Cluster
Special Education Grants to States: IDEA Part B ALN: 84.027
Special Education Grants to States: IDEA 611 ARP Allocations ALN: 84.027X
Special Education Preschool Grants: IDEA Preschool ALN: 84.173
Special Education Preschool Grants: IDEA 619 ARP Allocations ALN: 84.173X
Criteria: The District commits to expenditures using federal funds that comply with program guidelines established by federal agencies and in accordance with the State approved program budget.
Condition: Testing of the expenditures charged to the special education cluster determined that a certain cost charged to the program grant would not be allowable.
Cause: The District interpreted certain program costs to be funded by the grant as allowable costs.
Effect: Noncompliance resulted in the District including unallowable expenditures for reimbursement when preparing its final cost report.
Questioned Costs: Sports uniforms of $8,253, does not appear to be an allowable expenditure.
Context: Total population size for other than personal service expenditures was 202. The audit sample size for compliance testing was 15% of the population, which totaled 30, and was a haphazard selection. There was one finding identified in the audit sample.
Identification of a Repeat Finding: This is not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: The District should perform a detailed review of expenditures charged to grants prior to submitting its final cost report to the New York State Education Department for reimbursement to determine that allowable costs are reflected.
View of Responsible Officials of Auditee: Management agrees with the finding. Laurie O’Hara, Director of Special Education, will oversee the review of expenditures charged to grants to ensure that they are allowable costs under the guidance provided by federal agencies.