Paul Gay, Coordinator -
Cindy Colquitt, Administrative Support Assistant -
Donna Cannon, Administrative Support Assistant -
Phone: (334) 242-9728
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE:
The objective of the LEA Compliance Monitoring program is to adequately monitor all K-12 school systems in Alabama for compliance with state and federal regulations and State Board of Education mandates. Our goal continues to be one that will protect your school system as well as the state from any financial charge back that could possibly be imposed as a result of non-compliance of legal requirements that may be identified through the annual audit process performed by the Alabama Department of the Examiners of Public Accounts or by your system’s private audit firm. Our monitoring efforts have been designed to protect your system’s financial interest as specified in the cooperative agreement each of you have with the United States Department of Education.
After departmental research and planning, the following monitoring method was devised which includes:
- A self-assessment to be completed by your school system on a yearly basis due by Nov 1 of each year.
- An on-site monitoring visit conducted by the ALSDE, of your school system, once every three years.
- A desk audit – The desk audit is a document used in conjunction with the on-site monitoring process and is designed to help complete the on-site monitoring process in a more timely manner. If the information is not available to complete the desk audit, it will be completed during the on-site monitoring visit.
SELF-ASSESSMENT MONITORING (required yearly and due by Nov 1 of each year)
By September of each year, every school system will receive a memorandum from the ALSDE via the ALSDE Memoranda Center. The memorandum will direct each school system through the self-assessment process. The self-assessment documents noted below can be found on the ALSDE website (www.alsde.edu) under Offices, then Office of Supporting Programs, then Compliance Monitoring, and then Publications. The documents needed for the self-assessment are:
- Self-assessment document
- Document of assurance
- Request for technical assistance
- Review the self-assessment monitoring document, making sure your system is conforming to all annual legal requirements. The document is to be filed in your central office.
- Complete the document of assurance form and the technical assistance form and mail them to the ALSDE by November 1 of each year.
ON-SITE MONITORING PROCESS (required once every three-years)
The second part of the LEA Compliance Monitoring process is the on-site monitoring. Each school system is visited by a team of ALSDE staff once every three-years because all of our state’s legal obligations cannot be met simply by each system’s submission of a signed assurance document. This on-site effort is conducted by an ALSDE coordinator, and a team of ALSDE staff dedicated to the compliance monitoring effort.
The compliance monitoring coordinator publishes a schedule every August of approximately 45 school systems that will be visited. These systems receive the following from the ALSDE via the ALSDE Memoranda Center:
- Memorandum explaining the on-site visit monitoring process
- Compliance monitoring on-site schedule
- Compliance on-site review manual
- Compliance desk audit review manual
The compliance monitoring coordinator will contact the system to schedule a Webinar conference date to include the monitoring coordinator, selected ALSDE staff, the local school superintendent, and selected school system staff. This conference is to discuss preparations for the system’s upcoming onsite monitoring visit, and to answer any questions the system may have. The Webinar conference will include several systems to be monitored and the monitoring coordinator will inform each system as to the time and date of the entrance and the exit of the visit. Each system is to advise the monitoring coordinator as to where the ALSDE review staff is to meet and work while conducting the review of their school system.
THE ON-SITE MONITORING VISIT
An “entrance conference” is conducted on the first day of the on-site monitoring and the ALSDE monitoring staff is introduced to the school system staff. The number of the ALSDE monitoring staff
conducting the monitoring is determined by the number of schools within the LEA. On the last day of the visit, an “exit meeting” is conducted. The findings and citations are discussed with the system. A handwritten draft of the on-site monitoring document is left with the local school superintendent.
THE DESK AUDIT
Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, the desk audit is used in conjunction with the on-site monitoring process. The purpose of the desk audit is to help complete the on-site monitoring process in
a more timely manner. If the information is not available to complete the desk audit, it will be completed during the on-site monitoring visit.
POST ON-SITE MONITORING VISIT
The ALSDE will electronically send the school system their on-site monitoring document and Corrective Action Plan (CAP) composed of all citations written at the on-site monitoring. All citations must be corrected within a sixty (60) day timeframe. Each system must communicate to the ALSDE how they corrected each citation and must submit documents of evidence. When the ALSDE receives this
information, it is disseminated to each applicable division/program whereupon each ALSDE staff member reviews the evidence and completes a sign-off sheet indicating that each citation has been
corrected. When all citations have been corrected, a letter is sent to the system indicating compliance.
Systems that fail to adhere to the sixty (60) day timeframe in correcting their citations may request additional time from the ALSDE by submitting a letter.
Systems that fail to correct citations within the allotted timeframe may be subject to having state and federal funds withheld until all citations are cleared.