California Department of Education’s Administration of the Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations Program

Submitting OIG:

Report Description:

The objective of our audit was to determine whether the California Department of Education (California) appropriately allocated Immediate Aid to Restart School Operations (Restart) program funds and ensured that local educational agencies (LEA) and nonpublic schools used Restart program funds for allowable and intended purposes. We found that California appropriately allocated 2018 and 2019 Restart program funds to LEAs and nonpublic schools. Although we did not identify any unallowable costs at the two LEAs whose uses of Restart program funds we reviewed, we found that California needs to improve its processes for ensuring that LEAs use Restart program funds for allowable and intended purposes. Specifically, California did not always adhere to its established procedures for reimbursement of expenditures for the 2018 Restart program, including not obtaining supporting documentation for $103,124 in expenditures for two LEAs; did not timely monitor the Restart program; and did not ensure remittance of interest earned on Restart program funds that were advanced to LEAs.

Date Issued:

Monday, July 18, 2022

Agency Reviewed / Investigated:

Department of Education

Submitting OIG-Specific Report Number:

A19NY0025

Component, if applicable:

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Location(s):

Agency-Wide

Type of Report:

Audit

Questioned Costs:

Funds for Better Use:

Number of Recommendations:

View Document:

Attachment	Size
California-Department-Education’s-Administration-Immediate-Aid-Restart-School-Operations-Program.pdf	3.07 MB

Additional Details Link:

https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2022/a19ny0025.pdf

Related Open Recommendations

Recommendation Number	Recommendation Status	Significant Recommendation
2.1	Open	Yes
Implement procedures to timely monitor expenditures for the Restart program at LEAs to ensure expenditures were for allowable and intended purposes.
2.2	Open	Yes
Ensure its reimbursement process is implemented as designed when administering future disaster program grants.
2.3	Open	Yes
Provide support for the unsupported expenditures for the one LEA or return $15,355 in Restart program funds.
2.4	Open	Yes
Determine whether other LEAs that received Restart program funds under reimbursement provided supporting documentation for all requested funds. For all of the LEAs that submitted reimbursement requests, review the support to determine whether they provided documentation for the expenditures and, if not, obtain and review documentation from the LEAs and return any funds that were not properly used or supported.
2.5	Open	Yes
Review the LEAs with unspent balances of Restart program funds and ensure that any interest earned over $500 is remitted.

Recommendation Number

Recommendation Status

Significant Recommendation

Additional Details

2.1

Open

Yes

Implement procedures to timely monitor expenditures for the Restart program at LEAs to ensure expenditures were for allowable and intended purposes.

2.2

Open

Yes

Ensure its reimbursement process is implemented as designed when administering future disaster program grants.