The U.S. Government Accountability Office warned that billions in federal education dollars face heightened risk of waste and fraud after the Department of Education suspended its primary oversight mechanism.
Why It Matters
Federal watchdogs have flagged a gap in accountability for nearly $27 billion in Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funding allocated in 2025. The suspension of consolidated monitoring means the federal government lacks a systematic way to verify whether states are complying with ESEA requirements or following approved state plans.
What Happened
The Department of Education halted its consolidated monitoring process for ESEA requirements this year. As of August, the agency had not provided a timeline for resuming reviews or details on an alternative compliance method. The GAO report noted that without these checks, the department cannot assess state compliance effectively.
Consolidated monitoring was fully implemented in 2019 but is now paused. About two-thirds of ESEA funding goes to Title I programs, which support schools with high numbers of low-income students. The lack of oversight raises concerns about how these funds are being utilized across the country.
By The Numbers
- Nearly $27 billion in total ESEA funding for 2025 is at risk without active monitoring.
- Half of all states remain unmonitored for reporting requirements regarding chronic absenteeism.
- At least one-quarter of K-12 students have been chronically absent in recent years, defined as missing 10% or more of school days.
- More than 30% of shared-time schools reported implausible chronic absenteeism rates, compared to under 2% of other schools.
- In Pennsylvania, 98% of shared-time schools showed implausible chronic absenteeism data.
Zoom Out
The GAO identified significant data integrity issues in how states report student attendance. States are required to report total enrollment based on a single date but must track chronically absent students over an entire school year. This mismatch creates unreliable metrics.
The watchdog found implausible chronic absenteeism rates, including figures exceeding 100%, particularly in low-performing schools and those housing career and technical education programs. Nearly 13% of Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools reported rates over 100%, while only about 2% of non-CSA schools did.
Some states have clean records. Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, and Rhode Island had no shared-time schools with implausible rates. Chronic absenteeism has remained elevated following the COVID-19 pandemic, making accurate tracking essential for resource allocation.
What’s Next
The Department of Education has not announced when it will resume consolidated monitoring or how it will address the data discrepancies identified by the GAO. States continue to operate without federal verification of their compliance with ESEA reporting standards.
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