An Audit Report on the Texas Education Agency's Monitoring of Average Daily Attendance Reporting
September 2009
Report Number 10-001
Overall Conclusion
The Texas Education Agency (Agency) has a process in place to monitor the accuracy of average daily attendance (attendance) that school districts and charter schools self report; however, the process needs improvement. The Agency should improve its process by conducting timely audits on a statewide basis and requiring school districts and charter schools to address potential data errors identified in reported attendance information.
The Agency is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of reported attendance. It identifies potential errors by performing comprehensive analysis on attendance data for the approximately 4.4 million students who attend public school districts and charter schools statewide. Based on the results of the data analysis, the Agency selects school districts and charter schools for audit. However, the Agency's method for selecting school districts and charter schools to audit does not allow for statewide coverage and results in many of the same districts being audited from year to year. The Agency audited 227 school districts and charter schools from 2004 through 2008; approximately 1,090 school districts and charter schools were not audited during that time frame. Of these 227 audited school districts and charter schools, 111 were audited from two to four times during this five-year period. While it is expected that some school districts would be audited numerous times, it is not the expectation that these repeated audits would make up the majority of the audits the Agency conducts each year.
Additionally, the Agency's current audit process focuses on addressing all potential errors at each audited school district and charter school. The Agency does not provide the unaudited school districts and charter schools with information regarding their identified potential errors. School districts and charter schools could resolve some identified potential errors independently with Agency oversight. This may allow the Agency to reallocate its limited resources and enable the Agency to focus more on auditing and monitoring school districts and charter schools on a statewide basis, including other areas of review, such as compliance with attendance accounting requirements. It may also help the Agency to conduct audits on a more timely basis.
In addition, the Agency's State Funding Division (Funding Division) accurately calculates and records all audit adjustments it receives. However, it should improve its monitoring by tracking the audit adjustment process. Improved tracking of audit adjustments may allow the Funding Division to make audit adjustments in a timely manner.
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