PCRN: Monitoring

Monitoring

The Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), Division of Academic and Technical Education (DATE) will not conduct monitoring visits for the fiscal year (FY2019). However, DATE invites eligible recipients to apply for technical assistance to help implement the statutory changes and levers of opportunity in the newly-authorized Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V).

Monitoring Schedule

Each year DATE selects roughly 10 states for on-site reviews so that all states are reviewed at least once over a five-year cycle.

Purpose and Topical Areas for Monitoring

The overarching purpose of DATE’s monitoring plan is three-fold: (1) upholding the Department’s fiduciary responsibility in protecting against waste, fraud, and abuse of Federal funds; (2) ensuring that grantees effectively comply with the requirements of the law; and, (3) providing technical assistance to help grantees offer effective career and technical education programs consistent with the law.

To meet this purpose, DATE reviews States formula grants for compliance in up to five key areas that have been identified as central to the effective implementation of Perkins IV:

State Administration
Local Applications
Fiscal Program Responsibility
Accountability
Programs of Study

Monitoring Checksheet

The Monitoring Checksheet outlines the evidence that each State needs to compile for its on-site visit by the DATE monitoring team pursuant to the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV).

Monitoring Strategy

States are selected each year for monitoring based on a combination of risk factors, namely:

Last time monitored.
Questioned costs in A-133 single State audits for the two prior fiscal years.
Failure to draw down available grant funds in regular or reasonable intervals.
Conditions placed on the most recent grant award for failure to submit complete performance data and/or meet data quality standards.
Failure to meet agreed-upon performance levels for all students and/or disaggregated student populations.

States/grantees are then scheduled for full or targeted visits. Full visits are week long, on-site reviews that address compliance with respect to the seven topical areas noted in section II above. Targeted visits are two-day, on-site reviews that address one or more of the above topical areas, depending on the issues and needs of the State/grantee.

Prior to each monitoring visit, DATE staff hosts a pre-briefing with OCTAE leadership to discuss the State and/or grantee risk factors and the planned agenda for the visit. During each visit, DATE staff review documentation and interview key staff pursuant to a prescribed set of checklist items. Following each visit, DATE hosts a post-briefing for the Assistant Secretary and other OCTAE leadership to share key findings and suggested improvement strategies that will be included in the final monitoring report for the State/grantee.

Within sixty days after the visit, a formal monitoring report is issued to the State/grantee indicating areas of non-compliance (findings) and corrective actions as well as suggested improvement strategies. Any State/grantee having findings must submit corrective actions to DATE within the timeframe established in the report or otherwise negotiated with DATE staff. The DATE staff coordinates extensive follow-up with the State to ensure that all corrective actions are addressed and closed in a timely fashion. A letter is issued to the State/grantee to officially close out the monitoring report once all corrective actions have been satisfied.

Perkins IV Monitoring Checksheet (DOC, 81 MB)

QUICK LINKS

Perkins Web Portal
(Website)

OCTAE CONTACTS

Edward Smith
Edward.Smith@ed.gov
(202) 245-7602

Related Resources