MS WORD (393 KB)

June 13, 2012

Honorable Chris Nicastro
Commissioner of Education
Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education
205 Jefferson Street, 6th Floor
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102

Dear Commissioner Nicastro:

During the week of April 16 - 20, 2012 a team from the U. S. Department of Education's (ED) Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs (SASA) office reviewed the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (OESE) administration of the following programs authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended:

Title I, Part A (Basic);
Title I, Part D (Neglected and Delinquent); and
Title VII, Subtitle B, of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Education for Homeless Children and Youth) as amended by NCLB.

Enclosed is a report based upon this review.

The ESEA, as reauthorized, has increased the emphasis on accountability for all students, and has focused on States' responsibilities to work with districts and schools to improve instruction and student achievement. ED will continue to work closely with States to define their responsibilities in implementation.

The enclosed report contains a listing of the critical monitoring elements in each of the three areas for the three programs monitored, a description of the scope of the monitoring review, and the findings, required corrective actions and recommendations that the team cited as a result of the review, The DESE has 30 business days from receipt of this report to respond to all of the compliance issues contained herein, ED staff will review your response for sufficiency and will determine which areas are acceptable and which will require further documentation of implementation, ED will allow 30 business days for receipt of this further documentation, ifrequired, ED recognizes that some corrective actions may require longer than the prescribed 30 days, and in these instances, ED will work with you to determine a reasonable timeline, In those instances where additional time is required to implement specific corrective actions, you must submit a request for such an extension in writing to ED, including a timeline for completion of all related actions.

Each State that participates in an onsite monitoring review and that has significant compliance findings in one or more of the programs monitored will have a condition placed on that program's grant award specifying that the State must submit (and receive approval of) documentation that all compliance issues identified in the monitoring report have been corrected. When documentation sufficient to address all compliance areas has been submitted and approved, ED will then remove the condition from your grant award.

Please be aware that the issues presented in the enclosed report reflect the status of compliance in 2012 at the time of SASA's onsite review. You may receive further communication from ED that will require you to address noncompliance occurring prior or subsequent to the onsite visit.

The ED team would like to thank SEA and LEA staff for their hard work and the assistance they provided prior to and during the review in gathering materials and providing access to information in a timely manner. The ED team was impressed with the efforts of your State's staff to implement the many requirements of the four programs monitored.

We look forward to working further with your staff to resolve the issues contained in this report and to improve the quality of Title I programs in Missouri.

Sincerely,

/s/

Paul S. (Sandy) Brown
Acting Director
Student Achievement and
School Accountability Programs

Enclosure
cc: Margie Vandeven, Director
Marsha Ruettgers, ND Coordinator