Institutional Federal Compliance Report 2021

STATE OF NEW YORK

Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs

March 31, 2019

Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 200 (2 CFR 200), Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards , section 200.303(a) states the nonfederal entities must establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award that provides reasonable assurance that the nonfederal entity is managing the Federal award in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. Condition During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, the New York State Education Department (the Department) passed through $1,235,294,000 of federal funding to local education agencies (LEAs). LEAs regularly share graduation cohort data (considered to be Level 0) with the Regional Information Centers (RIC, Level 1) across New York State. The RICs conduct edit checks to test the data quality provided by LEAs and routinely highlight and return data that is flagged as questionable or not consistent with the directions detailed in the Student Information Repository System (SIRS) Manual. Once edit checks are passed at Level 1, the data is then shared with the State Data Warehouse (Level 2) where similar edit checks are conducted. The data is shared back with districts for them to verify on a regular basis. At the conclusion of the school year, Superintendents provide an affirmation/certification attesting to the accuracy and completeness of the data. However, the Department does not have procedures in place to verify the LEA’s maintain official written documentation to support the removal of a student from the regulatory adjusted cohort. Cause The condition found is due to the lack of controls and policies and procedures in place to ensure LEA’s are reviewed for compliance with maintaining the official written documentation needed when removing a student from a graduation cohort. Possible Asserted Effect Failure to ensure the LEA’s maintain appropriate written documentation to support the removal of a student from the regulatory adjusted cohort could result in incorrect graduation rate data being published for public review. Questioned Costs None Statistical Sampling The samples were not intended to be, and were not, a statistically valid sample. Recommendation We recommend the Department implement policies and procedures including internal controls over the annual report card reporting required for LEAs and implement additional procedures as necessary to ensure LEAs maintain appropriate written documentation to support the removal of a student from the regulatory adjusted cohort.

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