Objective

To determine whether the costs reported by Kids First Evaluation & Advocacy Center (Kids First) on its Consolidated Fiscal Report (CFR) were properly calculated, adequately documented, and allowable under the State Education Department’s (SED) guidelines, including the Reimbursable Cost Manual (RCM) and the Consolidated Fiscal and Reporting Manual (CFR Manual). The audit covered the period from July 2014 through June 2015.

About the Program

Kids First is an SED-approved, for-profit special education provider located in Westbury. Kids First provides preschool special education services to children with disabilities who are between 3 and 4 years of age. SED sets the special education rates based on financial information, including costs, reported by Kids First on the annual CFR that it submits to SED. Costs reported on the CFR must comply fully with the guidelines in SED’s RCM regarding eligibility and documentation requirements. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, Kids First reported $488,182 in reimbursable costs for its Special Education Itinerant Teacher services (referred to as the Program).

Key Findings

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, we identified $22,713 in costs that Kids First reported on its CFR that did not comply with SED’s requirements for reimbursement, as follows:

• $18,522 in personal service costs that were not fully supported by employee time records.
• $4,191 on other than personal service costs, consisting of $3,635 in expenses with insufficient or missing documentation, $259 for food and beverages provided at staff meetings, $163 for bank services charges and other fees, and $134 for magazine subscriptions that were not related to the Program.

Key Recommendations

To SED:

• Review the disallowances identified by our audit and, if warranted, make the necessary adjustments to the costs reported on Kids First’s CFR and to Kids First’s tuition reimbursement rates.
• Remind Kids First’s officials of the pertinent SED requirements that relate to the deficiencies we identified.

To Kids First:

• Ensure that costs reported on annual CFRs fully comply with SED’s requirements and communicate with SED to obtain clarification as needed.