Report 2021-614 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2021-614: California Department of Education: It Needs to Provide Better Oversight to Ensure That Local Educational Agencies Promptly and Effectively Use Federal COVID‑19 Funds (Release Date: October 2021)

Recommendation #5 To: Education, Department of

To ensure that LEAs effectively use their ESSER and GEER funds before the spending deadlines to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on students, Education should develop a robust process for tracking LEAs' spending of these funds. As part of this process, Education should identify the best practices that have enabled some LEAs to spend their ESSER and GEER funds quickly and effectively. It should communicate those practices to all LEAs to help them maximize their use of these funds.

Education continues to provide technical assistance, best practices, and guidance to LEAs, assisting them with spending their relief funding. As previously mentioned, Education presented more than 30 webinars to provide best practices and answer questions regarding allowable uses of the funds. Education also provides technical assistance to individual LEAs through its EDReliefFunds e-mail and regularly updates Federal Stimulus FAQs web page.

Additionally, Education has undertaken the following: 1) On October 28, 2021 and November 4, 2021, Education and Brustein and Manasevit PLLC provided a 2-day ESSER Funding Workshop, which was available to all LEAs, and the resources are available to all LEAs that were unable to attend. During the workshop, LEAs were provided information regarding funding, best practices, and examples of allowable expenditures; questions were answered and Education's contact information was offered during the workshop to allow for more targeted, direct support in fund spending; 2) On November 3, 2021, Education presented at the Safe Schools for All Statewide Collaborative hosted by the California Department of Public Health to provide examples of allowable uses of these funds, particularly for capital expenditures; and 3) On January 4, 2022, Education led an ESSER/GEER Strategy Session Workshop to provide LEAs with information on allowable uses, facilitated a Q and A session, and provided examples of best practices on how funds have been used successfully by other LEAs. In addition, best practices for spending remaining funds has also been posted on Education's Federal Stimulus FAQ web page.

As Education previously stated, there is no requirement to expend funds quickly; per the federal requirement, a state cannot take any action that decreases the amount of time an LEA has to spend the funds to which it is entitled.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2021-614

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.