A state audit has found that Evergreen Public Schools did not have adequate controls in place to ensure compliance with federal verification requirements for its free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs and its summer food service program for the 2014-15 school year.
The district received $1,152,463 for the breakfast program, $5,077,531 for the lunch program and $1,659 for the summer food service program, according to the audit, which was released to the public on Monday.
These programs fund free and reduced-price meals for students from low-income families. Families must meet income guidelines to be eligible for these programs.
Each year, districts have to select a sample of applications and verify that the income reported by families is accurate. If the verification process is not properly completed, the district is at risk of serving free and reduced-price meals to ineligible families and misreporting the verification results to the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The audit sampled applications submitted for students to determine whether the district properly processed applications and determined eligibility status. Of the 65 applications selected for testing, the audit identified 11 applications that should have been determined incomplete due to documentation requirements for applicants with no income.
The audit said the cause was that district personnel responsible for determining eligibility requirements were not sufficiently trained or aware of requirements to follow up on applications where income information was left blank for some household members.
The audit recommended the district strengthen internal controls to ensure that eligibility determinations are made in compliance with federal grant requirements.
In its response, the district said it “takes these issues seriously, and will use the information provided to improve the district’s process for verification of income reported on family applications submitted to the district.”
Compliant with new rule
The district also noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture rules for 2015-16 applications were changed, and if those rules were in place in 2014-15, the district would not have been in violation. Applications with blank income fields would have been processed as complete, the district would not have received an audit finding and internal controls would not have been considered partially deficient.
In light of the problems found by the auditor, and the rule change by the USDA, the district evaluated its USDA application process and significant changes were made starting in the 2015-16 year. The changes aim to tighten internal controls, avoid errors in family applications submitted to the district and improve the review process of applications by district staff.
