Objective

To determine the extent of implementation of the two recommendations included in our initial audit report, Financial Oversight of the Advantage After School Program (Report 2016-S-39).

About the Program

The Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) is responsible for administering the Advantage After School Program (Program). The Program offers a range of educational, recreational, and cultural age-appropriate activities that integrate what happens in the school day with less formal learning experiences and encourages active participation among children, youth, and parents in the design and delivery of activities. OCFS awards contracts to eligible not-for-profit community and faith-based organizations (collectively referred to as Providers) based on submitted work plans describing how such organizations will implement the Program. These plans must include the maximum number of children expected to participate in the Program on any given day throughout the year, referred to as the Maximum Average Daily Attendance (MADA). Contracts are for five years and range between $80,000 and $280,000 annually. Providers may receive up to three awards and may operate up to two Program sites within the same region. As of September 1, 2018, OCFS reported having contracts with 139 Providers to operate Programs at 176 sites serving about 16,000 children and youth across the State. Program funding for State fiscal year 2019-2020 totaled $33 million. 

Our initial report, issued on February 13, 2018, identified a risk that Providers could exceed their maximum cost per child if they were serving significantly fewer children than their MADA and did not reduce their expenditures proportionately. Based on observations of Program attendance at selected Providers during a sample time period, the cost per child on five contracts ranged from $1,981 to $5,332. Additionally, we identified $38,514 OCFS paid to six Providers for Program expenses that could not be supported or included errors, with the majority of the expenses resulting from personnel costs that lacked documentation supporting the amounts and/or methodologies used for allocation to the Program.

Key Finding

We found OCFS has made progress in addressing the problems we identified in the initial audit. Of the two prior audit recommendations, one was implemented and one was partially implemented.

Key Recommendation

Officials are given 30 days after the issuance of the follow-up report to provide information on any actions that are planned to address the unresolved issues discussed in this report.