Our objectives were to determine whether the Puerto Rico Department of Education provided accurate and complete displaced student count data to the U.S. Department of Education (Department) and appropriately accounted for Temporary Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students (Emergency Impact Aid) program funds in accordance with Federal guidelines.
Although the Puerto Rico Department of Education generally accounted for Emergency Impact Aid program funds in accordance with Federal guidelines, it reported inaccurate and unsupported displaced student count data to the Department. As a result, we projected that Puerto Rico should not have received and expensed an estimated $6.5 million in Emergency Impact Aid program funds.
We made three recommendations, including that the Puerto Rico Department of Education develop and implement effective written procedures and sufficient information system controls to ensure that accurate student enrollment and withdrawal data are entered in its student information system in a consistent manner, and provide support for the inaccurate and unsupported displaced student counts or return $6.5 million in Emergency Impact Aid program funds to the Department.
Oversight and Monitoring—Grantees
This is one of several reports the OIG has issued on this program. Find other State and territorial reports on our Disaster Recovery page.