Free and Reduced Lunch Audit - A few more words

We read a little something in the TNT yesterday that we felt needed further exploration:

Apparently a recent audit of the Tacoma Public Schools free and reduced lunch program turned up some errors. A sample of 32 applications for the meal voucher found two with errors: one student who should have been receiving reduced-price lunches was receiving lunches for free, and one family’s income was incorrectly calculated as monthly, rather than bi-weekly, making them ineligible for the benefit.

From the TNT:

The school district received nearly $9.3 million in federal funds for its school lunch and breakfast programs in fiscal year 2011. Auditors projected that if similar errors occurred at the same rate districtwide, the district could have received more than $334,000 by mistake. In the 2010-11 school year, the district provided an average of about 14,000 free and reduced lunches daily.

Auditors urged the district to contact OSPI about paying money back.

Upon further inquiry, it turns out that the audit is closed, and the district will need to pay back $1,300 based on the errors. This is the first finding against the district in the last few years. With the audit closed, it doesn’t look like the State will be coming looking for $300,000+ as the TNT story seems to imply. Next year the district will be audited again, and the issue will be revisited, but by adjusting the procedures for handling and reviewing the applications, the district expects to correct the problem, and does not expect further issues.

p.s. We’re still trying to figure out how a sample size of 32 is considered even close to adequate for an audit …

Link to The News Tribune