Not-So-Secret Agents

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) agent you will meet in 2023 is much different than the Dick Tracy-style agent we may be envisioning. He has a badge, maybe a polo shirt, and quite likely a gun holster on his side. With the influx of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) pandemic funding, OIG agents are serious about assuring Congress and the tax-paying public that they are getting a great return on investment. In fact, they are so serious about auditing ESSER dollars that we have been told to be prepared for an ESSER audit through 2029.

With the first funds released in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in spring 2020, we are looking at an audit period of nine years—even longer if construction was funded with ESSER funds. Hence, you hear CCOSA say repeatedly, “Document, document, document, and save records, save records, save records!”

What aspects of the ESSER work might we expect an auditor to examine? Some items that have been under an auditor’s microscope are:

■ Documentation linking an expenditure to COVID. Imagine yourself in 2029 trying to remember how each individual ESSER purchase “prepared for, prevented, or responded to COVID.” We must document how each purchase met that criteria.

■ Full documentation of a bidding process for construction projects that follows your board’s procurement policy, state procurement laws, and federal Uniform Grant Guidance (UGG) laws and guidance.

■ Construction documentation. Of particular interest is the DavisBacon Act, requiring districts to document that all workers on construction projects exceeding $2,000 must be paid the prevailing wage in your county for their labor. Some districts were caught off-guard that Davis-Bacon requirements included painting, installation of security cameras, etc. Another district was surprised to be asked to open records of the past three years to show their DavisBacon documentation on past construction projects. The Office of the Inspector General has stated that construction with federal funds may be subject to audit for 15 years.

■ Documentation of your compliance in following your own policies and procedures.

Of course, to comply you must have written policies and procedures that are required in federal law. Then you must follow your district’s written procedures.

■ Documentation of agendas, sign-in sheets, and meeting notes for required meetings of your Consultation Team with the appropriate members as required by law.

■ New audit items that have been requested in other states.Districts in other states have been asked to provide documentation for how they served groups of students most heavily impacted by COVID as listed in their ESSER plan: students with disabilities, English learners, students in poverty, students of color, students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, and migratory students. How did you serve these groups of students? What were your student group outcomes as a result of the ESSER money?

As we reach the end of the ESSER era, districts can be proud of the legacy of learning these COVID relief funds provided, along with other purchases that supported schools through the pandemic. Before we close the file labeled “ESSER,” we must be sure the file carefully and thoroughly documents the past four years’ use of the funds. In that case, if we hear, “An agent from the Office of the Inspector General is here to see you,” we can reopen the file with confidence. ■

Kathy Dunn served as a Reading Specialist, Federal Programs Director, and Assistant Superintendent in Mid-Del Schools prior to joining the CCOSA team as the Director of Professional Learning, State and Federal Programs. To reach her, email dunn@ccosa.org