Report 2021-614 Recommendation 6 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 #6 To: Education, Department of

To sufficiently monitor LEAs' use of ESSER and GEER funds, Education should establish a policy that specifies, at a minimum, the number of LEAs it will select for monitoring reviews to obtain adequate assurance that LEAs are spending funds in accordance with requirements. Further, Education should follow the new policy to ensure that it selects the appropriate number of LEAs to monitor.

Education continues to not concur with the CSA's recommendation to create a new policy identifying a minimum number of LEAs for monitoring reviews. Instead, Education will continue to conduct its 50 federal stimulus monitoring reviews during 2021-22, as planned, and utilize its annual risk assessment to best direct its monitoring resources in the future.

Therefore, no further updates will be provided for this recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Will Not Implement

We believe that establishing a policy that specifies the number of LEAs to monitor each year will help Education ensure that it consistently reviews an adequate number of LEAs to gain greater assurance that LEAs use ESSER and GEER funds appropriately. This policy is especially important considering that LEAs will receive additional—and in most cases, significantly larger—allocations of ESSER and GEER funds, generally starting in fiscal year 2021-22.

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All Recommendations in 2021-614

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.