McFarland Unified School District

Federal Program Affected Program Name: Education Stabilization Funds Assistance Listing Number: 84.425 Pass-Through Entity Number: 15559 Pass-Through Entity: California Department of Education (CDE) Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education Compliance Requirement: Reporting Type of Finding: Noncompliance Criteria or Specific Requirements Local education agencies must comply with all reporting requirements that the Department of Education may reasonably require. Section 15011 of Division B of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act requires that a grantee submit quarterly reports. In addition, the Uniform Guidance, Section 200.303 Internal Controls, requires that the non-Federal entity must establish and maintain documentation of effective internal controls over Federal awards that provide reasonable assurance that awards are being managed in compliance with Federal statutes, regulations and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. Condition During our testing over reporting of the Education Stabilization Fund awards, we noted that one of the quarterly reports was not completed correctly. The District was not aware that a negative number could be entered in the current expended amount line to correctly adjust for funds being reallocated between other ESF programs during the year after a previous quarterly report had been submitted, in order to correct the total expended amount for the grant period. ESSER III, Resource 3213, reported current expended amount of $67,130, while the general ledger reported ($1,181,603) due to allowable reallocations. Questioned Costs As the District subsequently made the adjustments in the current expended amount line to correct the total expended amount for the grant period in the following quarterly report, there is no questioned cost. Context The District did not comply with the reporting requirements as specified by the California Department of Education because they were originally not aware that a negative number could be recorded in the current expended amount line. Cause The condition identified appears to have materialized due to the Business Services personnel not being aware that a negative number could be recorded in the current expended amount line to correctly adjust their total expended amount for the grant period due to funds being reallocated between ESF subprograms. Effect The District did not comply with accurate reporting requirements as specified by the California Department of Education. Repeat Finding No. Recommendation The District should thoroughly review the instructions for future reporting requirements and, if instructions are unclear, reach out to their County Office of Education or directly to the California Department of Education when adjustments appear to be needed to previously filed reports. Corrective Action Plan and Views of Responsible Officials The ESSER III 2024 Fall Report submitted to the California Department of Education on October 15, 2024, reflected the correction made to include the credit not reported on the prior ESSER III quarterly report. The Business Department has been added as an additional reviewer prior to submission.