{"database": "mytown-research", "table": "audit_findings", "rows": [[45, "wa-sao", "1021378", "2017-002", null, "WA", "Nine Mile Falls School District No 325/179", "School District", "2043", null, "no_match", "Washington State Auditor's Office", "Financial and Federal audit \u2014 Nine Mile Falls School District No 325/179", "Financial and Federal", 2017, "2016-09-01", "2017-08-31", "2018-05-21", "federal_award_compliance", "material_weakness", 0.0, "Questioned Cost Amount: $0", "The District\u2019s internal controls were not adequate to ensure compliance with Title I grant requirements for graduation rate reporting. CFDA Number and Title: 84.010 \u2013 Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies Federal Grantor Name: U.S. Department of Education Federal Award/Contract Number: NA Pass-through Entity Name: Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction Pass-through Award/Contrac", "Background \nDuring fiscal year 2017, the District spent $308,385 in Title I grant funds. The \nTitle I program\u2019s objective is to improve the teaching and learning of children who \nare at risk of not meeting challenging academic standards and who reside in areas \nwith high concentrations of children from low-income families. \nFederal regulations require federal-money recipients to establish and follow \ninternal controls to comply with program requirements. These controls include \nknowledge of grant requirements and monitoring of program controls. \nDistricts must report graduation rate data for all public high schools to the Office \nof Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) annually. This is done by submitting \na Graduation Rate Report that indicates the student\u2019s enrollment status: graduated, \ntransferred out, dropped out, migrated to another country or deceased. The District \nmust retain adequate support for changes to a student\u2019s status. To confirm a student \nhas transferred out, the District must have official written docum entation that the \nstudent enrolled in another school or in an educational program that culminates in \nthe award of a regular high school diploma. \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office\n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________\n \n \nDescription of Condition \nOur audit examined the District\u2019s documentation for students it classified as \n\u201ctransferred out.\u201d \nThe District\u2019s controls were not adequate to ensure it gathered the required \ndocuments to support its classification of a student who left the District to be \nhomeschooled and several foreign exchange students who left the District to return \nto their home country. Specifically, the District did not obtain annual I ntent to \nProvide Home-Based Education forms (homeschool forms) for the homeschooled \nstudent, and did not retain the exchange -student applications for its exchange \nstudents. Without these forms, the District cannot report the students as confirmed \ntransfers. \nWe consider this control deficiency to be a material weakness. \nThis issue was not reported as a finding in the prior audit. \nCause of Condition \nDistrict staff were not aware of the requirement to obtain and retain documentation \nto evidence transfers of foreign exchange students and students transferring to \nhome-schooled programs. The District thought it could discard the support for these \nstudents once they had left the District. \nEffect of Condition and Questioned Costs \nThe District did not obtain official written documentation to support the transfer \nstatus for seven of the 15 students tested. It i ncorrectly reported these students as \ntransferred out when it reported graduation rate data to OSPI. \nAlthough there are no questioned costs, the District is at risk of misrepresenting the \ngraduation rates. \nRecommendation s \nWe recommend the District: \n\uf0b7 Train and guide staff to ensure appropriate personnel understand the grant \nrequirements and the Secretary of State\u2019s records retention policy \nrequirements \n\uf0b7 Establish controls to obtain and keep current homeschool forms and foreign \nexchange applications for all students reported as transferred out \n \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office\n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________\n \n \nDistrict \u2019s Response \nTo ensure that this weakness ceases, the Director of Business will ensure the \nfollowing: \n\uf0b7 That training is offered to appropriate personnel to ensure that they \nunderstand the grant requirements and th e Secretary of State\u2019s records \nretention requirements. \n\uf0b7 That controls are established that results with the District keeping current \nhomeschool forms and foreign exchange applications for all students \nreported as transferred out. \nAuditor\u2019s Remarks \nWe thank District management and staff for their assistance during the audit. We \nwill follow up on the status of the issue during our next scheduled audit. \nApplicable Laws and Regulations \nThe American Institute of Certified Public A ccountants defines significant \ndeficiencies and material weaknesses in its Codification of Statements on Auditing \nStandards, section 935, paragraph 11. \nTitle 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative \nRequirements, Costs Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards \n(Uniform Guidance), Section 303 \u2013 Internal controls, describes the requirements \nfor auditees to maintain internal controls over federal programs and comply with \nfederal program requirements. \nTitle 2 CFR Part 200, Uniform Guidance, Section 516 \u2013 Audit findings, establishes \nreporting requirements for audit findings. \nTitle 34 CFR Part 200, Subpart A \u2013 Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local \nEducational Agencies, Section 200.19 \u2013 Other academic indicators, establishes the \nrequirement for Districts to have official written documentation to confirm a \nstudent transferred out. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office\n___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________", "https://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1021378&isFinding=false&sp=false", "2026-07-30 13:24:54"]], "columns": ["rowid", "source", "report_number", "finding_number", "muni_id", "state", "entity_name", "entity_type", "entity_ext_id", "place_geoid", "match_method", "auditor", "report_title", "audit_type", "fiscal_year", "period_start", "period_end", "published_date", "finding_category", "severity", "questioned_cost", "cost_basis", "finding_title", "finding_text", "report_url", "fetched_at"], "primary_keys": ["rowid"], "primary_key_values": ["45"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 45.045995007967576, "source": "MyTown", "source_url": "https://mytown.theboringparts.com", "license": "CC BY 4.0", "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"}