Enrollment Verification Audit

Download this pdf file. Enrollment Verification Process Overview   (Oct. 2019)

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) collects enrollment data from all Georgia local education agencies (LEAs) through four main collections: October Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), March FTE, Student Record (Student Record), and Student Class (Student Class). FTE enrollment counts measure how many students are enrolled on the specific count date and are used to determine state education funding allocations. Student Record and Student Class include enrollment information for all students enrolled in a school throughout the year (July 1 to June 30). Therefore, all students included in an FTE count should also be included in Student Record and Student Class.

When students appear in an FTE count but do not appear in the Student Record and Student Class counts, GaDOE’s data collection system flags the error and notifies the LEA. LEAs are required to enter a comment explaining a reason for errors that they cannot correct in the Student Record and Student Class applications. The Enrollment Verification Audit seeks to gather additional information and documentation (when required) to explain these discrepancies. More specifically, the audit has the following goals:

  • Verify accuracy of data that school systems report to GaDOE;
  • Ensure school systems follow GaDOE requirements for data training, reporting, and storage;
  • Guard against improper data reporting practices and/or potential fraud; and,
  • Provide additional support to school systems and schools in refining and improving data reporting and storage practices.

The Enrollment Verification Audit focuses on schools with discrepancies between FTE and Student Record or between FTE and Student Class in the following areas that impact funding: student enrollment, special education student enrollment, gifted student enrollment, dual enrollment, Early Intervention Program (EIP) enrollment, and remedial education. The audit has three phases, as outlined in the remainder of the downloadable document link above:

Phase 1: Data Review and School Determination

Phase 2: Notification, Inquiry, Review, and Response

Phase 3: Investigation and Closeout

 

Download this pdf file. 2018 Enrollment Verification Audit Results   (Mar. 2019)

Through the enrollment verification audit, the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) reviews enrollment data reported to the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) during Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), Student Record (SR), and Student Class (SC) data collections. The enrollment verification audit aims to confirm the accuracy of submitted data to ensure that systems and schools receive state funding in line with actual enrollment.

When students appear in an FTE count, but do not appear in the SR and SC counts, GaDOE’s data collection system flags the error. GOSA identifies schools for the enrollment verification audit based on an analysis of the previous two years’ error codes. Schools are selected if they meet one of the following criteria for an error code:

  • More than 25 students were affected in the 2017-2018 school year, OR
  • More than 10 students were affected in both the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years.

The audit includes nine error codes that check for student enrollment consistency between FTE and SR/SC collections. The appendix on page 12 of the downloadable document linked above, includes a full list and description of the audited error codes.