Texas Education Agency’s Administration of the Immediate Aid Restart School Operations Program

We found that Texas established and implemented systems of internal control that provided reasonable assurance that Restart program funds were allocated appropriately and that sufficiently ensured that LEAs and nonpublic schools used Restart program funds for allowable and intended purposes. However, we identified instances of noncompliance with applicable Federal requirements and guidance at one of the three LEAs and at the one ESC covered by our review. Specifically, Houston improperly charged $34,065 in unallowable personnel expenditures to the Restart program. We also found that the Region 4 ESC did not obtain or maintain control and ownership to materials at nonpublic schools that were funded by the Restart program, totaling $84,243, as required by the Hurricane Education Recovery Act.