InspireNOLA Charter Schools’ Administration of Grants for the Replication and Expansion of High-quality Charter Schools

The objectives of our audit were to determine whether InspireNOLA Charter Schools (1) reported complete and accurate information on the annual performance reports that it submitted for its 2016 Charter Schools Program Grants to Charter Management Organizations for the Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Charter Schools (Replication and Expansion grant) and (2) spent 2016 Replication and Expansion grant funds in accordance with Federal cost principles and its approved application. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) awarded InspireNOLA Charter Schools a $4 million, 5-year Replication and Expansion grant on September 27, 2016. Despite certifying that annual performance reports were true, complete, and accurate, InspireNOLA Charter Schools did not include complete and accurate information for all performance measures on which it was required to report in its 2017, 2018, and 2019 annual performance reports for the Replication and Expansion grant. InspireNOLA Charter Schools did not report any information for 16 of 31 required performance measures or provide accurate information for 1 of the 15 required performance measures on which it did report because it did not have a process for ensuring that information for all performance measures is included and the annual performance report is accurate. InspireNOLA Charter Schools also did not retain records supporting 3 of the 15 required performance measures that it reported to the Department.