Oklahoma school districts face empty federal accounts, superintendents puzzled

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — A new federal report reviewing the State Department of Education is raising red flags.

The report comes as districts are telling FOX25 they're still dealing with funding issues a week into the school year.

As many districts are awaiting maternity leave, school security and inhaler funding, they are now concerned they don't have an accurate number for federal funds, which is a number that will determine a lot of their budget.

Dr. Rick Cobb is the superintendent at Mid-Del public schools. The district received their federal funding prediction for Title I allocations, and then saw the number disappear.

"On Monday all of us woke up and the grant management system had emptied all of that out. The only thing visible to us was our carryover amount," Cobb said.

Mid-Del's account is showing zeroes across the board, and Cobb doesn't understand why.

Schools spend the federal money given to them and wait on reimbursements. But right now, Cobb says there are concerns about getting that money back.

"Districts need to know what that's going to mean for them to be 4-5 months into the fiscal year before they start receiving those claim payments," Cobb said.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters chalks the situation up to a tech issue.

"We're constantly making sure the districts have an update to those numbers, so that's something that we continue to do to make sure that they have the numbers right there in front of them. So I don't know what computer problems they're having on their end," Supt. Walters said.

The U.S. Department of Education is up to date with the funding issues.

Their latest report shows the Oklahoma State Department of Education has "action required" on 32 of the 52 indicators including lack of audits, records, state accountability and internal controls.

"That's alarming that more than half of the points of emphasis or point of review that the USDE carried out on the OSDE relative to federal programs are so problematic that they require immediate action, immediate corrective action," Cobb said. "I've never seen a report that scathing."

OSDE has 30-60 days to comply with some of the U.S. Department of Education's requirements including fixing policies, updating parental and district notifications and coming up with a plan for internal controls and communications.