Report 2021-614 Recommendation 8 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 #8 To: Education, Department of

To ensure that it monitors LEAs that may be at higher risk of misinterpreting spending requirements or misusing ESSER funds, Education should, as part of its monitoring, select and review transactions that LEAs have reported in the Other Activities category for the ESSER program to determine whether the LEAs have used these funds for purposes allowed under federal law.

Education continues to not concur with the CSA's recommendation. During its monitoring, Education selects and reviews a sample of expenditures in each of the reported categories to ensure that LEAs are spending ESSER funds appropriately. Education considers its current approach as the strongest in identifying unallowable expenditures and misuse of funds.

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

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

As we described in the report, LEAs have a number of categories to report their expenditures in; however, as of June 30, 2021, LEAs had collectively reported 40 percent, or $438 million, of their $1.1 billion in ESSER I spending in the Other Activities category. In fact, as we described in the report, some of the items and activities that one LEA we contacted—Los Angeles Unified School District—included in the Other Activities category met the criteria for other distinct spending categories, such as purchase of cleaning supplies. As we stated in the report, miscategorized spending hinders Education's and U.S. ED's ability to accurately evaluate how LEAs are spending the funds and what results to expect from such spending.

---

All Recommendations in 2021-614

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.