Agency Responses to Audit Recommendations

Previous Audit Recommendations			Agency Updates as of December 2023
Audit Report	ID	Recommendation	Current Status	Description of Current Status
Kansas Department for Children and Families
Reviewing Foster Care Services for the Health and Safety of Children (2022)	1	DCF, KDADS, and other partners should develop clear protocols and guidance for services, including timeliness standards for assessments and communication with service providers.	Have Implemented	Communication and collaboration between KDADS and DCF continue to provide opportunities for growth and improvements in health care oversight and coordination for children in DCF custody. One such change is with the SFY 2024 KDADS/CMHC contracts. With Kansas moving towards all 26 CMHC become provisionally certified CCBHC centers by Jan 2024, KDADS and DCF have aligned CMHC/CCBHC triage, assessment, and service timelines for foster children with the federal CCBHC timelines. This ensures foster children are being seen timely in their communities. Additionally, with the newest Foster Care RFP, the Child Welfare Case Management Providers will enter MOUs with the CMHC/CCBHC provider network to improve communication and service provision.
	2	DCF should consider conducting a service capacity study to determine what services are most needed in the system and how best to increase capacity.	Have Implemented	DCF considered this option and completed a similar capacity assessment as part of the federal Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) assessment and preparation Fall 2022 to April 2023. Service Array is a Federal systemic factor in CFSR and state are required to conduct and provide information on service array needs. Therapeutic Family Foster Homes were added to service array 7/1/22. KDADS continues to work on developing additional community mental health resources in partnership with KDHE and DCF. Changes are specific to improving access to the system of care, while other initiatives are focused on developing state infrastructure to support better outcomes for treatment and recovery. Additionally, a focus on improving the children’s system of care by strategically focusing on policy changes, budget enhancements, and federal technical assistance. DCF and KDADS use service array assessments to guide service development throughout Kansas. One such service is Behavioral Interventionists. This service is for youth aged 3-21 delivered through neuro-developmental activities for individuals/families that are struggling with behavioral and emotional dysregulation through a child and family centered treatment plan. The goal is for the child/youth to live safely in the home/community setting, increase their behavioral function appropriately in daily living activities, reduce placement disruptions and prevent hospital or institutional treatment.
	3	DCF should consider conducting a staffing study to determine what caseloads should be and what efforts they can make to lower them.	Will Not Implement	DCF grant awards require that foster care case management agencies be accredited by a national accrediting organization such as Council on Accreditation (COA) or Joint Commission. This accreditation requires they follow well- regarded caseload standards within accreditation standards of 12- 25 children. No staffing study is needed to determine what caseloads need to be. Efforts to reduce the number of childern in out of home care and support a fully staffed workforce are on going.
	4	DCF should establish clear oversight expectations with their case management providers. This includes corrective actions and using performance data to identify systemic issues.	Have Implemented	Current grant awards include a penalty/incentive structure applicable after a period of program improvement planning. Quality assurance outreach phone call conversations to placement providers and parents have been implemented to understand in more depth and improve the quality and frequency of monthly worker/ child visits.
	5	DCF should ensure the Comprehensive Child Welfare Case Management System they are developing has several key features, including, a robust comprehensive case management system; the ability to track services children need and are receiving; provide direct access to case management staff; a way to uniformly access customer service complaints and resolutions; and have clear data quality control measures.	Have Implemented	The CCWIS Planning Project has been completed as of 9/30/2022. The primary products of planning; Feasibility Study Report, RFPs (Implementation, Quality Assurance, and Independent Verification and Validation), Implementation Advance Planning Document are all complete and have been approved by ACF and are pending CITO approval. In addition, the High-Level Plan has been completed and submitted to DCF and KITO/CITO for approval. The CCWIS Design, Development and Implementation (DDI) Project commenced October 1, 2022 under the DCF and ACF approved Implementation Advance Planning Document.
Kansas Division of the Budget
Evaluating the Accuracy of Certain Economic Impact Statements (2022)	1	The Division of the Budget should ensure state agency officials understand how to complete economic impact statements so they are consistent across agencies.	Have Implemented	The Division of the Budget (DOB) published information regarding the revised rules and regulations process in May 2022 to the DOB website. This information outlines changes that were made to the rules and regulations process as a result of the enactment of 2022 HB 2087. The information that was published on the DOB website has been shared with agencies.
	2	The Division of the Budget should update its economic impact statement templates to ensure they comply with all requirements in state law.	Have Implemented	The Division of the Budget updated the state agency Economic Impact Statement forms on May 3, 2022, as a result of the enactment of 2022 HB 2087. The Division of the Budget confirms that these updates bring the template into full compliance with state law.
	3	The Division of the Budget should work with other agencies involved in the regulation process to explore an electronic alternative to the current paper-based approval process.	Have Implemented	As previously stated, the Division of the Budget’s role in the process has been diminished to the point that we have received no Rules/Regs that have met the statutory threshold for approval. However, we have partnered with DofA to revisit the topic of implementing an electronic process for the remaining parties. DofA reports that the decision was made some time ago that the word “stamp” was taken literally to mean a physical stamp. I have asked the DofA team to revisit this definition with the other agencies (AG/Sec of State) to see if a redetermination can be made. This item should be marked as “complete” from a DOB perspective, but could remain as “In progress” for the other entities (DofA/AG/SoS).
Kansas Department of Education
Evaluating Disbursements for the Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program (2022)	1	KSDE staff should request and analyze monthly contributions and disbursement data needed to monitor SGOs’ compliance with the 90% distribution requirement in state law.	Have Implemented	The Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) reports contributions received by month on the SGO annual report. They disburse funds by first in, first out. This allows KSDE to determine whether the SGO is meeting the requirement for disbursement of scholarships in a timely manner.
Trends in Social Workers Employed by School Districts (2022)	1	KSDE should develop and distribute guidance to districts on how to report their licensed mental health staff including how to define staff FTE for each category (social workers, psychologists, and counselors).	Have Implemented	The KSDE Licensure team maintains training information for the Licensed Personnel Report on the website below. The primary documents of interest are the Licensed Personnel Guide, the LPR-EDCSA User Manual, and the EDCS Basics Training Video. The documents are available via this link. Social Workers are not licensed by KSDE so they are reported through the Special Education Team and guidance is contained in the Special Education Reimbursement Guide on p. 27 and p. 40. The link to that guide may be found on this webpage.
Kansas Information Security Office
Availability, Cost, and Quality of Certralized IT Security Services (2022)	1	The Kansas Information Security Office should more proactively educate state agencies about cybersecurity and KISO’s available services.	Have Implemented	The KISO has taken numerous steps to boost our education efforts. We have created a Cyber Collaboration and Cyber Preparedness Division. In addition, the KISO will be adding additional personnel during FY24, as requested by the Governor and approved by legislature, that will be assigned to work with agencies and bring resources to them and help build a standard program across the enterprise.
Secretary of State
Reviewing Kansas’s Procedures for Election Security, Part 1 (2023)	1	The Secretary of State should more proactively hold county election officers accountable for reviewing annual training, which may include requiring and tracking session attendance.	Will Not Implement	In the agency’s audit response, the agency agreed that county election officers (CEOs) should receive annual training, but expressed concerns with the attendance tracking recommendation for the following reasons: Clerks are independent, elected officials and state law does not authorize the Secretary of State’s Office (SOS) to exercise enforcement authority over county clerks in their role as county election officials (CEOs). State law requires the SOS to provide annual in-person training but does not compel CEOs to attend. The SOS works with CEOs to ensure those unable to attend in-person training receive and understand the material that is presented. Therefore, tracking in-person training session attendance is not an indicator of whether training was received. Therefore, the SOS will continue its current practice of proactively working with all CEOs to ensure they receive annual training without imposing an unenforceable requirement on these elected officials to receive training. The SOS is also working to enhance training delivery to provide additional options to receive annual training. The SOS also has implemented a certification training program to provide enhanced training to county election officers. This training, where attendance is taken, requires participants to complete a series of classes covering many aspects of election administration, including voter registration list maintenance, security of election systems, ballot preparation, and poll worker training. Once a CEO has taken all the required courses, a CEO will achieve a certified election official designation. To date more than 150 CEOs have received certification training.
Ground Water Management District #1
Evaluating Groundwater Management Districts’ Efforts to Conserve Water (2023)	1	Groundwater management districts should develop written policies that describe when and how they will revise their management programs	Have Implemented	On November 9th 2023 the GMD1 Board of Directors passed an official policy titled the Official Managegement Program Revision Policy, which has been attached to this submission for your review. The Policy requires that the GMD1 Board of Directors review the Management Program on an annual basis, during the Regular August Board Meeting to assess the need to revise or reaffirm the Management Program. The Management Program will then be presented at the District’s Annual Meeting.
Ground Water Management District #2
Evaluating Groundwater Management Districts’ Efforts to Conserve Water (2023)	1	Groundwater management districts should develop written policies that describe when and how they will revise their management programs	In Progress	The Equus Beds GMD2 staff has reviewed the district’s existing written procedure for revising the management program and has drafted a formal District Standard and Policy for Board review. The GMD2 Board will review the draft policy at the November, 2023 Board meeting. It is anticipated that the GMD2 Board will approved the policy before the end of 2023.
Ground Water Management District #3
Evaluating Groundwater Management Districts’ Efforts to Conserve Water (2023)	1	Groundwater management districts should develop written policies that describe when and how they will revise their management programs	Have Implemented	The GMD3 Board of Directors passed resolution 2023-5 adopting the Official Management Program Revision Policy dated October 31, 2023, that is intended to be applied so as to be consistent with the provisions of K.S.A. 82a-1029 of the GMD Act.
Ground Water Management District #4
Evaluating Groundwater Management Districts’ Efforts to Conserve Water (2023)	1	Groundwater management districts should develop written policies that describe when and how they will revise their management programs	In Progress	We have always made it a priority to review the management program at our February board meeting prior to the annual meeting. If any revisions are needed, we can address them at that time. This review process will be codified in policy at the next board meeting.
Ground Water Management District #5
Evaluating Groundwater Management Districts’ Efforts to Conserve Water (2023)	1	Groundwater management districts should develop written policies that describe when and how they will revise their management programs	In Progress	In the November board meeting, the board president assigned two board members to work with the District manager to develop a policy to guide the District in reviewing and amending the management program. This subgroup will be meeting this coming Tuesday to draft this policy for review and adoption by the board at the next board meeting.
15 Audited Entities
Information Systems: Reviewing Specific IT Security Controls Across State Agencies and School Districts (2023)	2	All 15 entities should report their progress to us by December 1, 2023 as part of our 6-month follow up process, taking a clear position on which findings are fixed, in progress, not started, or refused.	In Progress	We asked the 15 audited entities to report their 6-month progress on individual findings in the areas of Security Awareness Training, Account Security, and Incident Response. Of the 171 problem findings, entities reported having resolved 85 items, with 63 additional items in progress, 5 items not yet started, and 1 finding refused at the end of December 2023. For 17 findings, several entities either didn’t address or didn’t take a clear position on progress towards remediation.