BIE’s Indian education programs derive from the federal government’s trust responsibility to Indian tribes, a responsibility established in federal statutes, treaties, court decisions, and executive actions. It is the policy of the United States to fulfill this trust responsibility for educating Indian children by working with tribes to ensure that education programs are of the highest quality, among other things. In accordance with this trust responsibility, Interior is responsible for providing a safe and healthy environment for students to learn. BIE’s mission is to provide Indian students with quality education opportunities. Students attending BIE schools generally must be members of federally recognized Indian tribes, or descendants of members of such tribes, and reside on or near federal Indian reservations. All BIE schools—both tribally-operated and BIE-operated—receive almost all of their funding to operate from federal sources, namely, Interior and Education. Specifically, these elementary and secondary schools received approximately $830 million in fiscal year 2014—including about 75 percent, or about $622 million, from Interior and about 24 percent, or approximately $197 million, from Education. BIE schools also received small amounts of funding from other federal agencies (about 1 percent), mainly the Department of Agriculture, which provides reduced-price or free school meals for eligible low-income children. (See fig. 1). While BIE schools are primarily funded through Interior, they receive annual formula grants from Education, similar to public schools. Specifically, schools receive Education funds under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Title I—the largest funding source for kindergarten through grade 12 under ESEA—provides funding to expand and improve educational programs in schools with students from low-income families and may be used for supplemental services to improve student achievement, such as instruction in reading and mathematics. An Education study published in 2012 found that all BIE schools were eligible for Title I funding on a school-wide basis because they all had at least 40 percent of children from low-income households in school year 2009-10. Further, BIE schools receive Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding for special education and related services, such as physical therapy or speech therapy. BIE schools tend to have a higher percent of students with special needs than students in public schools nationally. BIE schools’ educational functions are primarily the responsibility of BIE, while their administrative functions are divided mainly between two other Interior offices. The Bureau of Indian Education develops educational policies and procedures, supervises program activities, and approves schools’ expenditures. Three Associate Deputy Directors are responsible for overseeing multiple BIE local education offices that work directly with schools to provide technical assistance. Some BIE local offices also have their own facility managers that serve schools overseen by the office. The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Management oversees many of BIE’s administrative functions, including acquisitions and contract services, financial management, budget formulation, and property management. This office is also responsible for developing policies and procedures and providing technical assistance and funding to Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) regions and BIE schools to address their facility needs. Professional staff in this division—including engineers, architects, facility managers, and support personnel—are tasked with providing expertise in all facets of the facility management process. The Bureau of Indian Affairs administers a broad array of social services and other supports to tribes at the regional level. Regarding school facility management, BIA oversees the day-to-day implementation and administration of school facility construction and repair projects through its regional field offices. Currently there are 12 regional offices, and 9 of them have facility management responsibilities.health and safety inspections to ensure compliance with relevant requirements and providing technical assistance to BIE schools on facility issues. To determine how student performance at BIE schools compares to that of public school students, we reviewed data on student performance for 4th and 8th grades at BIE and public schools for 2005 to 2011 using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a project of Education. Since 1969, these assessments have been conducted periodically in various subjects, including reading and mathematics. Further, these assessments are administered uniformly across the nation, and the results serve as a common metric for all states and selected urban districts. Indian Affairs’ administration of BIE schools—which has undergone multiple realignments over the past 10 years—is fragmented. In addition to BIE, multiple offices within BIA and the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Management have responsibilities for educational and administrative functions for BIE schools. Notably, when the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs was asked at a February 2015 hearing to clarify the responsibilities that various offices have over BIE schools, he responded that the current structure is “a big part of the problem” and that the agency is currently in the process of realigning the responsibilities various entities have with regard to Indian education, adding that it is a challenging and evolving process. Indian Affairs provided us with a chart on offices with a role in supporting and overseeing just BIE school facilities that shows numerous offices across three organizational divisions. (See fig. 4.) The administration of BIE schools has undergone several reorganizations over the years to address persistent concerns with operational effectiveness and efficiency. In our 2013 report, we noted that for a brief period from 2002 to 2003, BIE was responsible for its own administrative functions, according to BIE officials. However, in 2004 its administrative functions were centralized under the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management. More recently, in 2013 Indian Affairs implemented a plan to decentralize some administrative responsibilities for schools, delegating certain functions to BIA regions. Further, in June 2014, the Secretary of the Interior issued an order to restructure BIE by the start of school year 2014-15 to centralize the administration of schools, decentralize services to schools, and increase the capacity of tribes to directly operate them, among other goals. Currently, Indian Affairs’ restructuring of BIE is ongoing. In our 2013 report, we found that the challenges associated with the fragmented administration of BIE schools were compounded by repeated turnover in leadership over the years, including frequent changes in the tenure of acting and permanent assistant secretaries of Indian Affairs from 2000 through 2013. We also noted that frequent leadership changes may complicate efforts to improve student achievement and negatively affect an agency’s ability to sustain focus on key initiatives. Indian Affairs’ administration of BIE schools has also been undermined by the lack of a strategic plan for guiding its restructuring of BIE’s administrative functions and carrying out BIE’s mission to improve education for Indian students. We previously found that key practices for organizational change suggest that effective implementation of a results- oriented framework, such as a strategic plan, requires agencies to clearly establish and communicate performance goals, measure progress toward those goals, determine strategies and resources to effectively accomplish the goals, and use performance information to make the decisions necessary to improve performance.BIE officials said that developing a strategic plan would help its leadership and staff pursue goals and collaborate effectively to achieve them. Indian Affairs agreed with our recommendation to develop such a plan and We noted in our 2013 report that recently reported it had taken steps to do so. However, the plan has yet to be finalized. Fragmented administration of schools may also contribute to delays in providing materials and services to schools. For example, our previous work found that the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management’s lack of knowledge about the schools’ needs and expertise in relevant education laws and regulations resulted in critical delays in procuring and delivering school materials and supplies, such as textbooks. In another instance, we found that the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management’s processes led to an experienced speech therapist’s contract being terminated at a BIE school in favor of a less expensive contract with another therapist. However, because the new therapist was located in a different state and could not travel to the school, the school was unable to fully implement students’ individualized education programs in the timeframe required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In addition, although BIE accounted for approximately 34 percent of Indian Affairs’ budget, several BIE officials reported that improving student performance was often overshadowed by other agency priorities. This hindered Indian Affairs’ staff from seeking and acquiring expertise in education issues. In our 2013 report, we also found that poor communication among Indian Affairs offices and with schools about educational services and facilities undermines administration of BIE schools. According to school officials we interviewed, communication between Indian Affairs’ leadership and BIE is weak, resulting in confusion about policies and procedures. We have reported that working relations between BIE and the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management’s leadership are informal and sporadic, and BIE officials noted having difficulty obtaining timely updates from the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management on its responses to requests for services from schools. In addition, there is a lack of communication between Indian Affairs’ leadership and schools. BIE and school officials in all four states we visited reported that they were unable to obtain definitive answers to policy or administrative questions from BIE’s leadership in Washington, For example, school officials in one state D.C. and Albuquerque, NM.we visited reported that they requested information from BIE’s Albuquerque office in the 2012-13 school year about the amount of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funds they were to receive. The Albuquerque office subsequently provided them three different dollar amounts. The school officials were eventually able to obtain the correct amount of funding from their local BIE office. Similarly, BIE and school officials in three states reported that they often do not receive responses from BIE’s Washington, D.C. and Albuquerque offices to questions they pose via e-mail or phone. Further, one BIE official stated that meetings with BIE leadership are venues for conveying information from management to the field, rather than opportunities for a two-way dialogue.