Audit: Faulty Free Lunch Eligibility by School Officials Cost Taxpayers at Least $38 Million - The Sentinel

Audit: faulty free lunch eligibility by school officials cost taxpayers at least $38 million - The Sentinel

Kansas, like many states, uses the number of students receiving free lunches to determine at-risk state funding for each district, but an audit just found that taxpayers likely spent between $38 million and $53 million for students who likely were not eligible. Auditors also say the 2023-24 free lunch count in Kansas was more than double the estimated number of students the U.S. Census Bureau indicated should be eligible for a free lunch. Most s…

Audit finds fragmented state system for investigating abuse, neglect

A new state audit found that Kansas does not have a comprehensive registry of people who abuse, exploit and neglect children or vulnerable adults because of a fragmented system and a lack of clarity in state law. Auditors set out to document whether state agencies had complete registries of perpetrators of abuse, neglect and exploitation. They found that the registries may be incomplete although the system was so complex it was hard to know for …

Kansas audit finds misuse of free school lunches

A recent Kansas study found that the number of students receiving free school lunches more than doubled the expected count in the 2023-2024 school year, and said many should not have qualified. The Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit (LPA) estimated up to 3,200 students were eligible for free student lunches. However, this was significantly less than the number who qualified but were likely ineligible, according to the LPA’s study, which r…