The Government Accountability Office warned that billions of dollars in federal K-12 education funding face increased risks of waste, fraud, and abuse after the U.S. Department of Education suspended its primary monitoring system this year.
A new GAO report highlights significant gaps in federal oversight of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The department halted consolidated monitoring while developing a new compliance approach, leaving half of all states unmonitored for reporting requirements that apply nationwide.
Federal Oversight Halted
Consolidated monitoring was fully implemented in 2019 to ensure states adhere to ESEA mandates. The current suspension means the federal government lacks a systematic way to verify whether states are following their approved plans or meeting statutory obligations.
“As a result of suspending consolidated monitoring, Education will not be able to systematically assess whether states are complying with ESEA requirements and following their approved state plans,” the report stated.
As of August, the Department of Education had not provided a timeline for resuming these reviews or outlined specific alternative methods for ensuring compliance. This lack of oversight is particularly concerning given the scale of federal education spending.
Financial Stakes and Data Reliability
Total ESEA funding reached nearly $27 billion in 2025. Title I grants, which support schools with high numbers of low-income students, represent about two-thirds of that total. States receiving these funds must develop statewide accountability systems and report data on chronic absenteeism.
The GAO found that the reliability of this absenteeism data is severely compromised. The federal definition of chronic absenteeism includes students who miss 10 percent or more of school days. However, discrepancies in how states calculate enrollment versus attendance have led to implausible reporting.
Some schools reported absenteeism rates exceeding 100 percent. These errors occurred because states often report chronically absent students over an entire school year but base total enrollment figures on a single snapshot date. This mismatch creates statistical anomalies that distort the true picture of student attendance.
Problematic Reporting in Specific Schools
The data issues were most pronounced in shared-time schools, where students split their days between multiple institutions. Approximately 30 percent of shared-time schools reported implausible chronic absenteeism rates, compared to under 2 percent of other schools.
In Pennsylvania, the problem was extreme, with 98 percent of shared-time schools showing implausible rates. Conversely, states including Idaho, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, and Rhode Island reported no shared-time schools with such data errors.
Low-performing schools and those housing career and technical education programs also saw higher instances of unreliable data. Nearly 13 percent of Comprehensive Support and Improvement schools reported rates over 100 percent, while only about 2 percent of schools outside that category did so.
Impact on Policy Decisions
Chronic absenteeism has remained elevated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with estimates suggesting one-quarter of K-12 students were chronically absent in recent years. Accurate data is essential for tracking trends and evaluating interventions.
“Absent quality chronic absenteeism data, this nationwide data source cannot be used to reliably track trends or evaluate the effectiveness of accountability efforts and interventions to address chronic absenteeism,” the GAO concluded.
Without restored monitoring mechanisms, federal officials cannot effectively determine if taxpayer dollars are achieving their intended goals in improving student attendance and academic outcomes.