{"database": "mytown-research", "table": "audit_findings", "rows": [[50, "wa-sao", "1021391", "2017-001", null, "WA", "Kiona-Benton City School District No 52", "School District", "1818", null, "no_match", "Washington State Auditor's Office", "Financial and Federal audit \u2014 Kiona-Benton City School District No 52", "Financial and Federal", 2017, "2016-09-01", "2017-08-31", "2018-05-31", "federal_award_compliance", "material_weakness", 0.0, "Questioned Cost Amount: $0", "The District did not have adequate internal controls to ensure compliance with the federal Title I grant requi rements for Assessment System Security. 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 Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Pass-th", "Background \nThe federal Title I program\u2019s objective is to improve the teaching and learning of \nchildren who are at risk of not meeting state academic standards and who reside in \nareas with high concentrations of children from low-income families. During fiscal \nyear 2017, the District spent $537,021 in Title I program funds. \nFederal regulations require recipients of federal money to establish and follow \ninternal controls to ensure compliance with program requirements. These controls \ninclude knowledge of grant requirements and monitoring of program controls. \nState tests are based on the K-12 learning standards. Students are tested in English \nlanguage arts, math and science. Assessments measure students\u2019 learning, including \nthe critical -thinking and problem -solving aspect s of the new standards. Results \nfrom these tests not only will allow accountability for schools and districts, but also \nwill allow states to be compared to each other in a fair system. OSPI updates \nassurance forms and training logs yearly to ensure school districts are following the \nprescribed requirements and have an understanding of any new requirements that \nshould be followed when giving assessments to students. \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office\n \n \nDistricts must establish and maintain an assessment system that is valid, reliable \nand consistent with relevant professional and technical standards. Within their \nassessment system s, states must have policies and procedures to maintain test \nsecurity and ensure that districts implement those policies and procedures. \nDescription of Condition \nThe District could not show it obtained the most recent version of OSPI\u2019s Security \nTest Assurance forms. In addition, the District did not retain records of teacher \nattendance at required trainings or that it followed required security procedures \nbefore, during and following assessment testing of students for any of the District\u2019s \nschools. \nWe consider this internal control deficiency to be a material weakness. \nThis issue was not reported as a finding in the prior audit \nCause of Condition \nThe District\u2019s appointed Assessment Coordinator was not aware OSPI had released \nan updated version of its assessment security form. Also, t he District\u2019s \nIntermediate Counselor was responsible for maintaining assessment testing \ndocuments, including teacher training logs, and prior test assurance and post -test \nassurance forms. Because of an unexpected vacancy of the position, the District \nstated it placed all of the Counselor\u2019s files in storage, but could not locate them. \nEffect of Condition \nThe District was unable to demonstrate it complied with its District Security Plan \nfor ensuring security requirements over Assessment Tests were followed in \ncompliance with OSPI policies and procedures . The District also was unable to \nprovide completed test assurance forms from each school in the District and did not \nobtain the most recent version of OSPI\u2019s assessment security forms for distribution \nto each school. The District schools include: \n\u2022 K-2: Primary \n\u2022 3-5: Intermediate \n\u2022 6-8: Middle \n\u2022 9-12: High \nThe Dis trict also did not comply with the requirements for retaining adequate \nsupport (test assurance forms and teacher training logs) as required. \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office\n \n \nRecommendation \nWe recom mend the District develop controls to ensure it uses the most recent \nversion of OSPI \u2019s Assessment Test System forms and develop policies and \nprocedures to store and safeguard the forms completed for each school. \nDistrict\u2019s Response \nWe concur with the State Auditor\u2019s federal audit from the period September 1. 2016 \nthrough August 31, 2017. \nThe records retention issue found by the auditor was a mere error by our \nassessment coordinator and lack of oversite by our federal grants director. We \nhave made some changes to our processes to ensure that in the future proper \ndocument retention requirements are followed the District will: 1) go over all \nprocedures with the Assessment Coordinator each year 2) have the Assessment \nCoordinator maintain a copy of the testing security documents at the conclusion of \neach state testing session and all originals documentation will be sent to the \nFederal Program Director to ensure records are maintained and available for \naudit or inspection. These changes should help minimize this concern in the future. \nAuditor\u2019s Remarks \nWe thank the District for its cooperation throughout the audit and the s teps it is \ntaking to address these concerns. We will review the status of the District\u2019s \ncorrective action during our next audit \nApplicable Laws and Regulations \nThe American Insti tute of Ce rtified Publi c A ccountants de fines sig nificant \ndeficiencies and material weaknesses in its Codification of Statements on Auditing \nStandards, section 935, Compliance Audits, paragraph 11. \nTitle 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative \nRequirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards \n(Uniform Guidance), section 303 Internal controls, describes the requirements for \nauditees to maintain internal controls over federal programs and comply with \nfederal program requirements. \nTitle 20 U.S. Code section 6311(b)(3)(C)(iii) requires state and local education \nagencies to establish and maintain a valid, reliable assessment systems, consistent \nwith relevant professional and technical standards.\n \n \n \n \nWashington State Auditor's Office", "https://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1021391&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": ["50"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 413.4030239947606, "source": "MyTown", "source_url": "https://mytown.theboringparts.com", "license": "CC BY 4.0", "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"}