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

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.