Audit & Assurance
School district audits carry obligations no commercial engagement has: state-prescribed formats, extraclassroom funds, and aid claims that get looked at closely.
Goldenthal & Suss Consulting P.C. audits school districts, charter schools, and university foundations in New York and New Jersey. These engagements are performed under Government Auditing Standards and, where federal award spending reaches $1,000,000 in a fiscal year, expand into a single audit under the Uniform Guidance. Beyond the financial statements, the work typically covers extraclassroom activity funds, state aid claim support, federal education program compliance, and the internal control and compliance reporting that districts' oversight bodies require.
Student activity funds are small in dollar terms and disproportionately large in audit attention. They are handled by students and faculty advisors rather than the business office, cash is often involved, and segregation of duties is difficult by design.
Most findings here are control findings rather than misstatements — missing receipts, deposits not made timely, one person collecting and recording. They are also among the most fixable, and a management letter that gives advisors a workable procedure tends to close them for good.
Aid claims run on data the district generates itself — enrollment counts, attendance, transportation, special education placements. Because the funding follows the data, the supporting records need to be capable of standing on their own, and reconciliations between the student information system and what was claimed are worth performing before an auditor asks.
Education dollars usually arrive as pass-through awards from the state, which means they count toward the single audit threshold even though no check came from Washington. Districts crossing $1,000,000 in expended federal awards need a single audit, and the compliance requirements tested vary by program: time and effort documentation, comparability and maintenance of effort, procurement, period of performance, and reporting.
Charter schools sit in an awkward middle: they are government-funded but frequently organized as nonprofits, and their reporting may follow FASB or GASB depending on structure and state. Authorizer requirements add another layer, often with their own deadlines and their own formats, and renewal decisions can turn on a clean audit history.
Generally yes. School districts are government entities, so their audits are performed under Government Auditing Standards in addition to GAAS, which adds a required report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance. Where the district also expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year, the engagement expands into a single audit.
They are typically audited, though the scope and format vary by state and by the district's own policy. Because these funds are handled outside the business office by students and faculty advisors, they attract attention out of proportion to their dollar value, and most findings relate to internal control rather than to misstated balances.
Yes. Title I, IDEA, child nutrition, and similar awards nearly always reach districts as pass-through funding from a state agency, and pass-through federal awards count toward the $1,000,000 threshold exactly as direct awards do.
Tell us about your organization and the deadline you are working toward. We will tell you what the engagement involves and what it costs.
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