Kentucky's Oversight of Local Educational Agency ARP ESSER Plans and Spending. ED OIG Oversight of Coronavirus Response Funds. ED OIG/A22CA0095

The objectives of the audit were to determine whether the Kentucky Department of Education (Kentucky) had an adequate oversight process in place to ensure that (1) local educational agencies' (LEA) American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) plans met applicable requirements and (2) LEAs use ARP ESSER funds in accordance with applicable requirements and their approved LEA ARP ESSER plans. The review covered Kentucky's processes for reviewing and approving LEA ARP ESSER plans and overseeing LEAs' use of ARP ESSER funds from March 24, 2021, through July 31, 2022. For the first objective, the authors reviewed the summary results of Kentucky's review of LEA ARP ESSER plan narrative submissions to verify that Kentucky approved the plan narratives for all 171 LEAs and gain an understanding of how often and why plan reviewers did not approve plans. For the second objective, the authors reviewed samples of ARP ESSER expenditures at Warren County and Jefferson County to determine whether they used ARP ESSER funds in accordance with applicable requirements and their approved LEA ARP ESSER plans. It was determined that the ARP ESSER plans for Warren County and Jefferson County met applicable requirements and that Kentucky was consistent in how it reviewed and approved the two plans. Kentucky also designed a process to annually review and approve updated LEA ARP ESSER plans that, if implemented properly, is adequate to ensure that updated plans meet applicable requirements.