State Education Department

School District Compliance with RESCUE Act Provisions for Building Assessment and Planning (Follow-Up Report)

School districts are required by the 1998 RESCUE Act to perform periodic inspections of their school buildings, develop maintenance and capital plans for the buildings, and prepare an annual report card for district residents about building conditions. In audit 2007-S-24, we examined district compliance with these requirements at 50 selected school districts across the State and found that many of the districts did not fully comply with the requirements. For example, in 2005, 12 of the districts had no inspection documentation for some or all of their occupied buildings and 11 districts had not prepared the required capital plan. We recommended that the State Education Department strengthen its monitoring of district compliance with RESCUE Act requirements. When we followed up on these matters with Department officials, we found they had made some progress in their implementation of our audit recommendations.

For a complete copy of Report 2009-F-19 click here.