Federal Award Findings, Questioned Costs and Corrective Action Plan

Federal Award Findings, Questioned Costs and Corrective Action Plan(Reformatted from FY 2009 Single Audit Report)FindingCriteria: According to 34 CFR §300.640, states must annually submit an unduplicated count of children withdisabilities receiving special education and related services. Additionally, 34 CFR §300.645(c) requires states toobtain certifications from each agency and institution that it performed an unduplicated and accurate count.Condition and context: The Department of Education prepared census reports of children with disabilities fromages 3 to 21 who received special education and related services within the State using data from its StudentAccountability Information System (SAIS). To validate the SAIS data’s accuracy, the Department required theLEAs to verify in letters to the Department by November 14, 2008, their unduplicated student counts as ofOctober 1, 2008. However, the Department did not reconcile the verification letters to the SAIS data to validatethe accuracy of the Report of Children with Disabilities Receiving Special Education, Part B, submitted onFebruary 1, 2009, until after June 30, 2009. Specifically, auditors noted that for 27 of 50 LEAs tested, the countsin the verification letters did not match the SAIS data.Effect: An incorrect count of children with disabilities could affect the funding the Department receives in futureyears. Auditors performed additional procedures and determined that the discrepancies between the SAIS data andthe unduplicated student counts verified by LEAs would not result in material noncompliance with the Cluster’sreporting requirements. However, it was not practical to extend our auditing procedures sufficiently to determinequestioned costs, if any, that may have resulted from this finding. This finding is a significant deficiency ininternal control over compliance and noncompliance with the cluster’s reporting requirements.Cause: Inconsistencies between counts in the verification letters and SAIS data were caused by missing orincorrect data in SAIS due to LEAs’ not updating information when required or not submitting data corrections ina timely manner. The Department began contacting the LEAs in August 2009 to identify reasons for thedifferences.Recommendation: To help ensure that an accurate, unduplicated count of children with disabilities receivingspecial education and related services is reported, the Department should resolve differences between datarecorded on SAIS and data reported by LEAs in verification letters prior to reporting the data to the federalgrantor.This finding was similar to a prior-year finding.Agency Response: ConcurContact person: Gary Holland, Audit Manager, (602) 364-3518Anticipated completion date: June 30, 2010Agency Corrective Action Plan: The Arizona Department of Education (ADE)-Exceptional Student Services(ESS) has revised its policies and procedures to address the federal child count verification process in thefollowing manner:ESS requires local education agencies (LEAs) to verify their federal child count on October 1, effective FY 2009.This was a change from the previous federal child count date of December 1. A memo regarding this change wassent to the Special Education Directors, via the list-serv, on June 9, 2008, and again on August 21, 2008. Bymoving the child count date earlier in the year, LEAs will have more time to submit and correct their child countdata in Student Accountability Information System (SAIS) well in advance of the federal child count due date,thus giving ADE-ESS accurate data to submit to Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).ADE has not yet initiated statutory changes to reduce the SAIS adjustment window. ESS will continue to pursuediscussions within ADE, relative to initiating and completing this statutory change. Currently, A.R.S. §15-91535