Missouri’s Administration of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund Grant

The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the State of Missouri (Missouri) designed and implemented awarding processes that ensured that the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER grant) was used to support local educational agencies (LEAs) and institutions of higher education (IHEs) that were most significantly impacted by the coronavirus or LEAs, IHEs, or other education-related entities within the State that were deemed essential for carrying out emergency educational services; and monitoring processes to ensure that subgrantees used GEER grant funds in accordance with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and other applicable Federal requirements.We found that for two of the initiatives Missouri funded with its GEER grant (LEA Transportation Supplement Initiative and IHE Initiative), Missouri’s DESE and DHEWD designed and implemented awarding processes that ensured the GEER grant was used to support LEAs and IHEs that were most significantly impacted by the coronavirus, as determined by the State. However, for the third initiative (LEA Connectivity Initiative), while DESE created a methodology designed to ensure the GEER grant funds were used to support LEAs that were most significantly impacted by the coronavirus, it did not correctly implement the process it designed. We found that for all three initiatives, Missouri ensured that the LEAs and IHEs that received a GEER grant allocation submitted the required applications and assurances. We also found that Missouri followed cash management requirements. We found that Missouri’s DHEWD designed and implemented a comprehensive reimbursement process as its monitoring strategy to ensure that subgrantees of its IHE Initiative used GEER grant funds in accordance with the CARES Act and other applicable Federal requirements. However, we found that DESE’s plan for monitoring subgrantees of its LEA Connectivity and LEA Transportation Supplement initiatives could be strengthened.