APPENDIX III APPENDIX III Department Comment We concur in the need for clarification of the term "employed on Federal property." A number of legal opinions have been rendered by the Department's Office of General Counsel relating to the concept of "employed on" Federal property since the beginning of the program. We will undertake to rewrite instructions which have been issued for use by LEAs and Program staff to make them more definitive. Prior to revising current instructions the problems inherent in modifying current understandings and developing more definitive statements will be reviewed thoroughly. GAO Recommendation 2. Requiring adequate documentation from LEAS to determine whether a child with a civilian parent employed or working on Federal property actually resides with the federally-connected parent. Department Comment Federal Regulations (45 CFR 115.3(j)) state that "Name...of parent...who is employed on Federal property and with whom such pupil resides, unless the parent is a member of the uniformed services on active duty," is a required item on the parent-pupil survey form. Some LEAS use the above phraseology intact while others ask for both the parent's and child's address to show they reside together. We will strengthen instructions in this area but believe that only through extensive field review with a larger regional staff could this situation be appreciably improved. GAO Recommendation 3. Requiring adequate documentation from LEAS to determine whether a child is a dependent of a uniformed services parent. Department Comment P.L. 81-874 Section 3(a)(2) states -- "had a parent who was on active duty in the uniformed services." No requirement of dependency is expressed in the statute. However, in the past, including FY 1973, the uniformed services clause was administered, generally, in such a manner as to require the federally-connected child to reside with the spouse of, or the parent who was on active duty. Revised regulations eliminated the "reside with" qualification so that it would be in keeping with the statutory language. We do not believe it is feasible to seek APPENDIX III APPENDIX III more information than is currently required. However, we would be interested in obtaining clarification from GAO as to what type of information they believe is required and where the "dependency" requirement fits into the language. GAO Recommendation 4. Adopting an alternative procedure to be used for States and Department Comment P.L. 81-874 Section 403(10) establishes the definition of Average Daily errors. Another alternative would be to compute entitlement and an entitlement for payment on the basis of membership. A number of States now rely upon membership or average daily membership (ADM) data for financial and statistical purposes and do not keep attendance or ADA data except for Federal program purposes. Following this trend may avoid computational errors associated with conversion to ADA data. Recommendations will be made as to how the law must be modified to permit this type of computational average. GAO Recommendation 5. Reviewing State aid allocation formulas relative to the Department Comment It should be noted that with the passage of P.L. 93-380, which included 94-584 77 - 61 APPENDIX III APPENDIX III GAO Recommendation 6. GAO recommends that the Secretary direct OE to: Review the Department Comment We concur in principle. However, the manpower now located in the SAFA Regional Offices cannot fulfill their present workloads which includes an in depth analysis of revenues to determine their sources in every instance. GAO Recommendation 7. Specify in instructions for SEAS and LEAs the weight that should be given to its published criteria items, and establish ranges for each criterion to assist in compiling the data necessary for selecting comparable LEAS. Department Comment We recognize the need for study of this problem to determine whether improvements can be made. If the use of a weighting system is deemed advisable, recommendations will be made to accordingly change existing regulations. GAO Recommendation 8. Develop procedures for approving Federal payment rates derived using comparable LEAS which are consistent with its instructions for selecting such LEAS. Department Comment We disagree since present procedures do provide for a review of the criteria set forth in the instructions for selecting comparable LEAs. The methods used for actual computation of the local contribution rates is set forth in 45 CFR 115.31. GAO Recommendation 9. Require that applicants use as comparables only those LEAS APPENDIX III APPENDIX III Department Comment To the extent possible, we have followed this practice. The instructions to applicant LEAs (OE Form 4019, 10/75)page 7 states: "The 5 comparable districts should not include applicants under Section 3 of the Act and should be selected in accordance..." Page 12 of the same instructions somewhat modifies the above by saing "if an applicant district is included among the suggested comparable districts..." However, in some States it is difficult to select comparable districts which are not federally impacted to some degree. In those instances their influence is reduced to the extent possible in computing the local contribution rate. GAO note: Deleted general comments pertain to matters |