Millions in federal education money not properly monitored, reported in NC

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction failed to properly monitor and report on millions in federal education grants in the prior fiscal year, according to an audit.

Beth Wood, a fourth-term Democrat in her 15th year as state auditor, and her staff published a report last week that highlighted issues with federal compliance at the Department of Public Instruction.

Auditors found none of the 298 Supporting Effective Instruction program grants totaling $60.8 million were reported to the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System in 2022, as required.

In addition, 1,291 subawards totaling $230.1 million through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program – out of 1,716 totaling $3.3 billion – were also not reported, according to the report.

Many of the ESSER subawards that were reported contained errors.

Auditors found 51 out of 60 subawards tested did not include required information on how the $760.1 million in funds were spent.

Thirty of the subawards totaling $732 million were reported 47-61 days late, and another six totaling $8.2 million were reported with incorrect information.

Five subawards totaling $1.1 million were reported twice, nine totaling $1.1 million were not reported at all, and 38 totaling $757 million did not agree with supporting documents by a total of $805,000, auditors wrote.

“The FFATA was enacted to help reduce wasteful spending in government by empowering every American citizen with the ability to hold the government accountable for each spending decision,” the report read. “When subaward information is not reported … or when it is reported incorrectly, citizens do not have complete and accurate information about how federal funds are being used in their communities.”

Other analysis showed DPI did not complete all of its planned monitoring activities for 329 public school units that received $1.77 billion in federal funding from three programs in 2022. DPI’s fiscal monitoring plan called for site visits at 20 schools, but auditors found the department only visited 10 that received $34.1 million in funding.

Auditors wrote the lack of oversight increases the risk the funding wasn’t used as intended, which was to address the impacts of the pandemic and provide services to educators to improve academic achievement.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt responded to the report in a letter to Wood on March 20 that concurred with the findings and outlined corrective actions.

Truitt explained that reviews for charter schools that closed and investigations involving external agencies took priority over monitoring, due in part to staffing shortages in the department.

“Staffing has been an issue at DPI, but also within the (public school units) selected for monitoring,” she wrote. “Vacancies and turnover within (public school unit) positions such as CFO and Director of Federal Programs, resulted in delays throughout the monitoring process.”

“Department management will consider additional resources, scope changes, and adjusting the number and type of monitoring events as part of the contingency planning to ensure monitoring is completed when employee turnover occurs,” Truitt wrote.