Risk Assessment
The Texas Education Agency, as a pass-through entity, awards federal grant funds to eligible sub-recipients, including local educational agencies (LEAs), which include both school districts and open-enrollment charter schools, education service centers (ESCs), and non-profits. TEA as a pass-through entity is required under Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 2 CFR §200.332(b), to evaluate each sub-recipient risk of non-compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the sub-award for purposes of determining the appropriate sub-recipient monitoring as described in 2 CFR §200.332(d)(e), which may include the sub-recipients results of previous audits, including Single-Audits in accordance with 2 CFR §200.332(f), changes to key personnel, and other factors that may reflect any patterns of non-compliance.
The Federal Compliance Officer in the Department of Grant and Administration (GCA) manages all GCA Risk Assessment activities, data, technical assistance, and training.
To comply with this requirement, the Federal Compliance Officer conducts an annual risk assessment of all sub-recipients to determine and mitigate any potential risk of non-compliance. Based on the outcome of the annual risk assessment, sub-recipients are assigned a risk status of low, medium, or high, which is evaluated annually.
2023-2024 Risk Assessment Indicators
The following are the sixteen indicators developed by the Department of Grant Compliance and Administration to establish LEA Risk Status for the 2023-2024 school year:
- I-1: Management Decision Letters
- I-2: IDEA-B LEA MOE Non-Compliance
- I-3: Monitored by FFM
- I-4: Monitored by SMD
- I-5: Grants Administration Risk Assessment Referral
- I-6: Post Award Compliance (PAC) Referral
- I-7: Other TEA Division Risk Assessment Referrals
- I-8: Superintendent Turnover
- I-9: CFO/Business Manager Turnover
- I-10: LEAs Single Audit Requirement, 2 CFR§ 200.501
- I-11: FFM and SMD Disallowed Cost Percentages
- I-12: FPC Risk Assessment Referral
- I-13: Federal Compliance Officer Referral
- I-14: LEAs not Fiscally Monitored by GCA (within the past 5 years)
- I-15: LEA Risk Status Designation Increase
- I-16: TEA High-Risk Designation, 2 CFR§ 3474.10
Access Your Risk Assessment Status Designation Report
The Department of Grant Compliance and Administration has completed its LEA Risk Assessment status determination for the 2023-2024 school year. LEAs can access their 2023-2024 Risk Assessment Status Designation Report, by following the steps below:
- Access the TEA Smartsheet WorkApp site.
- Select Risk Assessment WorkApp.
- Select LEA Name and CDN when the 2023-2024 GCA Risk Assessment page displays.
- Click on the Attachments link and click on the LEA RA Report.pdf title.
- The report will download to your computer's download folder.
- Click on the downloaded report to view your 2023-2024 LEA Risk Assessment Status Designation Report.
- Each LEA report includes points assigned by indicator, total risk assessment score, and risk status designation for 2023-2024.
LEA administrators with current, active Smartsheet access to other TEA WorkApps (EDGAR Connect, FPC Random Validation, ESSER Reporting, etc.) will be able to view the Risk Assessment WorkApp, and new users will need to be added through the EDGAR Connect WorkApp. With the assistance of the EDGAR Connect Workapp, please request for users to be added or removed, or send an email request to Frank Baca (Frank.Baca@tea.texas.gov), the Department's System Automation Team Lead.
For questions regarding 2023-2024 Risk Assessment scores or status, contact Cal Lopez, the TEA Federal Compliance Officer, at noncompresolution@tea.texas.gov or 512-463-9017.