JACKSON – The Mississippi Department of Education has failed for years to publish federally required evaluations of its afterschool programs, according to a new analysis from the Mississippi Office of the State Auditor.
The report found that millions of federal dollars continue to flow from MDE to nonprofits and school districts to operate afterschool programs, even though required statewide evaluations have not been made public since November 2022.
In fiscal year 2024, nonprofits and school districts analyzed in the report spent more than $11 million in Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant funds to provide afterschool care to students.
Under federal requirements, subgrantees must collect and submit performance data to MDE. The department is then required to use that data to complete an annual statewide program evaluation and submit it to the federal government. According to the auditor’s office, MDE has not published the required report in more than two years.
“As we have seen on the news in Minnesota and here at home during the welfare scandal, making sure that these taxpayer funds are monitored is critical,” State Auditor Shad White said in a statement. “We will continue to highlight any weaknesses we see in the programs providing money for afterschool or childcare centers.”
The auditor’s office also highlighted additional concerns in the report. Analysts said some subgrantees may have violated state and federal regulations by hiring external evaluators who were not independent. In one instance, a grantee hired an individual who worked for the nonprofit arm of the organization being evaluated, creating a potential conflict of interest.
The report also noted that attendance data for the centers grouped student participation in multi-day and multi-hour increments. As a result, a student who attended one day or only a few hours each month could be counted in the same attendance category as a student with perfect attendance.
The report is the second in a series examining taxpayer-funded childcare programs in Mississippi.
The full report is available on the State Auditor’s website under the “Reports” tab by searching “afterschool.”
