Special Education No Valid License (NVL)/Questioned Cost Process for FY 2021-2022

To avoid potential overpayment of state special education categorical aid to eligible entities, auditors are required to report questioned costs identified through DPI’s audit of staff not holding appropriate special education licensure. Prior to FY 2021-22, this process was handled through a “NVL/QC Worksheet” the auditor would download from DPI’s School Financial Services (SFS) website and populate with names available through SAFR.

Due to the timing of the DPI’s No Valid License (NVL) audit snapshot in March, the number of individuals reported as not having valid licenses was much greater than the number of staff who, by the end of the fiscal year, had either received a valid license or had corrections made within the WISEstaff report. This generated considerable extra work for auditors and DPI staff reviewing the worksheets.

Using WISEgrants as the vehicle for collecting NVL information going forward will significantly increase the accuracy of which staff were reported as not having a valid license for purposes of special education categorical aid calculations. WISEgrants is able to verify, through a connection to the Educator Licensing Online database, which individuals from the March audit list are now in compliance and will be able to continuously check for late license renewals.

For any individual who continues to show up as not having a valid license for special education, the auditor reporting of salary and benefits will be submitted through WISEgrants. Auditors will log into WISEgrants for the applicable LEA and will identify the Fund, Function, Project Code and compensation of any individual listed. At the same time, agencies being audited can submit information through WISEgrants regarding the NVL if they feel it is incorrect.

Moving this process to WISEgrants will eliminate the need to utilize spreadsheets, the copying of staff names from SAFR, and manually emailing worksheets to DPI. In addition, having the most up-to-date licensing information will reduce the sheer number of staff initially reported and reduce the stress on agencies that know their staff have since received appropriate licensure.

Time delays have occurred with getting this new process set up, but the current plan is to have the names available in WISEgrants by mid-August. We will work on a communication plan to let auditors know if an agency has any individuals on the NVL list (again, based on a preliminary study, DPI believes this list will be significantly smaller than prior years and most agencies will not have any staff identified as not having valid licenses).