**UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION**

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

32 Old Slip, 26^th^ Floor, Financial Square,

New York, New York 10005

PHONE (646) 428-3860 · FAX (646) 428-3868

January 31, 2007

> **Control Number**
>
> **ED-OIG/A02G0009**

Richard P. Mills

# Commissioner of Education

New York State Education Department

Education Building

89 Washington Avenue

Albany, NY 12234

Dear Commissioner Mills:

This **Final Audit Report**, entitled *Mid-Hudson Migrant Education
Outreach Program (MEOP)*, presents the results of our audit. The purpose
of the audit was to determine whether 1) the Mid-Hudson MEOP adhered to
the Migrant Education Program (MEP) student eligibility rules, and 2)
the Mid-Hudson MEOP conducted prohibited lobbying. Our review covered
the period of September 1, 2002, through August 31, 2005.[^1] During our
limited review, we found that 1) the Mid-Hudson MEOP adhered to MEP
student eligibility rules, and 2) that Mid-Hudson MEOP did not conduct
prohibited lobbying.

New York State Education Department (NYSED) MEP's re-interviewing
initiative found an error rate of 3.91 percent for all of New York State
(NYS), which resulted in a reduction of the NYSED migrant students
population count. However, based on the March 1, 2005, NYSED MEP's
re-interviewing initiative report, Mid-Hudson MEOP's number of eligible
students participating in the NYSED MEP was not reduced. As a result of
further review of the entire migrant children population conducted by
NYSED MEP as well as a routine review of existing and new Certificates
of Eligibility (COEs),[^2] Mid-Hudson MEOP's eligible migrant students
population was reduced by a total of 431 (191 in 2002-2003, 152 in
2003-2004, and 88 in 2004-2005).

Our review was made for the limited purpose described above and would
not necessarily disclose all material weaknesses in the administration
of the NYSED MEP program.

BACKGROUND

The MEP is authorized under Part C of Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001. The statutory purposes of the program are to support
high-quality and comprehensive educational programs for migrant
children, to help reduce the educational disruption and other problems
from repeated moves, and to ensure that migrant children benefit from
state and local system reforms. Pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 200.81 (2003),
federal regulations define an eligible migratory child as a child who
is, or whose parent, spouse, or guardian is, a migratory agricultural
worker (including a migratory dairy worker) or a migratory fisher, and
who, in the preceding 36 months, has moved from one school district to
another, to obtain temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or
fishing work.

The goal of the MEP is to ensure that children of migrant workers have
access to and benefit from the same free, appropriate public education,
including public preschool education, provided to other children. MEP
funds help state and local educational agencies remove barriers to the
school enrollment, attendance, and achievement of migrant children.

The MEP provides formula grants to State Educational Agencies (SEAs) to
establish or improve programs of education for migratory children.
Federal funds allocated to SEA are based on each state's per-pupil
expenditure for education and counts of eligible migratory children,
ages 3 through 21, residing within the state.

NYSED funding for fiscal year 2002-2003 was \$9,779,974, for 2003-2004
\$9,859,142, and for 2004-2005 \$9,594,158. In addition, only a minimal
amount of the NYSED's MEP funds were retained at the NYSED for
administration of the program. The remainder of the funds was
distributed among 11 MEOPs, which are comprised of one or more school
districts, as well as between various Support Services. Mid-Hudson MEOP
received funding of \$1,119,663 to provide services for 2,029 migrant
students for 2002-2003, \$1,183,718 for 1,431 in 2003-2004, and
\$1,250,964 for 1,084 in 2004-2005.

On July 6, 2004, the U. S. Department of Education's Office of Migrant
Education requested that each state complete a re-interview of the
migrant child count for the year 2003-2004. The NYSED MEP in conjunction
with Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska MEPs began auditing the eligibility
of migrant children on October 12, 2004. All 11 NYS MEOPs were
represented in a sample of 383 migrant students. The process of
re-interviewing the sampled migrant students concluded on January 27,
2005, and resulted in the final error rate of 3.91 percent with 15
students determined to be ineligible from the total of 383 children
sampled. Moreover, based on the March 1, 2005, NYSED MEP's
re-interviewing initiative report, Mid-Hudson MEOP's number of eligible
students participating in the NYSED MEP was not reduced.

AUDIT RESULTS

We found that, based on our limited review, the Mid-Hudson MEOP did
adhere to the MEP eligibility rules for the families we were able to
interview, and it did not conduct prohibited lobbying. Based on our
interviews with the parents, guardians, or individuals of 10 students in
our sample of 150, the students appeared to have been eligible at the
time the COEs were originally completed. Nevertheless, we were unable to
interview most of the parents, guardians, or individuals for students we
attempted to interview. We noted, however, that as a result of the
re-interviewing initiative, further review of the entire NYSED MEP
migrant children population, as well as a routine review of existing and
new COEs, Mid-Hudson MEOP's eligible migrant students population was
reduced by a total of 431 (191 in 2002-2003, 152 in 2003-2004, and 88 in
2004-2005). In addition, we reviewed the grant expenditures with
supporting purchase orders and invoices and found no evidence of
prohibited lobbying.

***Objective 1 - Student Eligibility***

We determined that, based on our limited review, the Mid-Hudson MEOP did
adhere to the MEP eligibility rules for the families we were able to
interview. Three samples of 50 students for each year (2003 -- 2005)
were selected for our review, totaling 150 migrant students sampled for
the entire audit period. The population for each year included only
students that had not already been identified by NYSED MEP as
"ineligible." For the MEP participants selected for testing, we reviewed
COEs and the documentation included in participant records for all 150
students identified in our sample.

We attempted to interview 71 parents, guardians, or individuals of the
150 migrant students selected, and were only able to interview parents,
guardians, or individuals representing 10 students sampled. All 10
students appeared to have been eligible at the time the COEs were
originally completed.

##  {#section .Style1}

We were unable to locate the remaining 61 parents, guardians, or
individuals out of the 71 attempted during our visits. See the table
below for illustrative interview results.

Table 1: Interview Results

+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|                               | *      | *      | *      | **T    |
|                               | *2002- | *2003- | *2004- | otal** |
|                               | 2003** | 2004** | 2005** |        |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ##### Int                     | 0      | 0      | 0      | 0      |
| erviewed and Found Ineligible |        |        |        |        |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Interviewed and Found         | 1      | 4      | 5      | 10     |
| Eligible                      |        |        |        |        |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ##                            | 23     | 22     | 16     | 61     |
| ### Attempted Not Interviewed |        |        |        |        |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Not Attempted                 | 26     | 24     | 29     | 79     |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ### **Total Sample**          | **50** | **50** | **50** | *      |
|                               |        |        |        | *150** |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

*Objective 2 - Prohibited Lobbying*

We determined that the Mid-Hudson MEOP did not use MEP funds for
prohibited lobbying. The documentation reviewed did not provide evidence
that Mid-Hudson MEOP spent any MEP funds for lobbying activities. We
determined that it was acceptable for Mid-Hudson MEOP to fund and
participate in meetings and camps sponsored by Rural & Migrant Ministry
(RMM) as they provided educational services and information, and they
did not involve lobbying.

Upon review of supporting documentation provided, we found several
purchase requisition documents with attached receipts and additional
information pertaining to purchases related to RMM. The Mid-Hudson MEOP
reimbursed employees for meeting registration fees and refreshments at
meetings and summer camp organized and sponsored by RMM. According to
the relevant documentation for the meetings and summer camp, none of the
sessions were related to influencing Congress or the State legislature.
The amounts were minor as many were less than \$10. Therefore, we
determined that the meetings and summer camp expenses did not violate
the prohibition on the use of appropriated funds to influence
legislation or appropriations pending before Congress or any State
legislature as contained in Public Law 108-447, Division F, § 503 (b) of
the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005.

OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND METHODOLOGY

The objective of our audit was to determine whether 1) the Mid-Hudson
MEOP adhered to the MEP student eligibility rules, and 2) the Mid-Hudson
MEOP conducted prohibited lobbying. Our review covered the period of
September 1, 2002, through August 31, 2005.

To accomplish our objective, we reviewed federal policy and procedures
for identifying and recruiting migrant children. We obtained the NYSED's
migrant funding amounts, which were awarded based on the count. We
interviewed NYSED MEP officials and reviewed relevant documentation to
gain an understanding of, and assessed Mid-Hudson MEOP's controls for
ensuring student eligibility and the accurate reporting of migrant child
counts to the NYSED MEP in accordance with applicable statute,
regulations, and guidance. We also interviewed Mid-Hudson MEOP
officials.

In addition, we reviewed relevant documentation including payroll,
conference registration fees, meeting expenses, supplies, and
advertising supporting records, to ascertain the validity of the
allegation pertaining to lobbying activities conducted by the Mid-Hudson
MEOP. We relied on Mid-Hudson MEOP grant summary reports for the period
of September 1, 2002, through August 31, 2005, generated from its
financial accounting system. We verified the completeness of the data by
comparing the total expenditures on the report to the total expenditures
reported to NYSED. Based on the results of these tests, we concluded
that the reports were sufficiently reliable to be used in meeting the
audit objective.

We relied on computer-processed data extracted and provided by NYS
Migrant Education Identification and Recruitment Program (ID&R). We
obtained and validated the population of Mid-Hudson MEOP migrant
children for each year in our review. The population for each year's
validated count included students whom had been determined by the NYSED
MEP to be ineligible for services (see Table 2). Since NYSED MEP had
already determined these students to be ineligible, we decided to omit
these individuals from the population to be sampled in each year. The
adjustments to each year's Mid-Hudson MEOP migrant children population
are noted below:

**Table 2: Adjusted Mid-Hudson Migrant Children Population by Year**

  ----------------- ------------------- ---------------- ------------------
  **Year**          **Total Count**     **Ineligible     **Net Count**
                                        Count**          

  2002-2003         2,220               191              2,029

  2003-2004         1,583               152              1,431

  2004-2005         1,172               88               1,084

  **Total**         **4,975**           **431**          **4,544**
  ----------------- ------------------- ---------------- ------------------

Sequential numbers were assigned to each of the records in the
"adjusted" population files. For each of the funding years, we randomly
selected 50 students from each year, totaling 150 migrant students
sampled for the entire audit period. We then reviewed COEs for all 150
MEP participants selected for testing. For the selected participants, we
attempted to perform interviews of parents, guardians, or individuals
for 71 of the selected students, and reviewed the documentation included
in participant records. We were only able to interview parents,
guardians, or individuals representing 10 students who were
found eligible, from our sample of 150. Therefore, our scope was limited
regarding our first audit objective.

We performed our fieldwork at Mid-Hudson MEOP at State University of New
York in New Paltz, NY, and the ID&R office in Albany, NY, during the
period February 24, 2006, through March 30, 2006. We performed the
interviews of the parents, guardians, or individuals of the selected
students in Orange County, NY, from April 24, 2006, through April 28,
2006.

We held an exit briefing with NYSED MEP and Mid-Hudson MEOP officials on
November 16, 2006. During the exit briefing, we discussed the results of
our audit, and both NYSED MEP and Mid-Hudson MEOP officials agreed that
a draft report was not necessary. Our audit was performed in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards appropriate to the
scope of the review described above.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552),
reports issued by the Office of Inspector General are available to
members of the press and general public to the extent information
contained therein is not subject to exemptions in the Act.

We appreciate the cooperation and assistance extended by your staff
during the audit. If you have any questions, please contact Daniel P.
Schultz, Regional Inspector General for Audit, at (646) 428-3888.

> Sincerely,
>
> /s/
>
> Daniel P. Schultz
>
> Regional Inspector General for Audit

[^1]: NYSED MEP had already identified certain migrant students as
    ineligible during our audit period, and it is reflected in our
    sample population in Table 2.

[^2]: A COE is a form to document migrant eligibility.