Legislative auditors find Kansas at-risk funding may overcount students tied to free lunch program

Heidi, an audit presenter for the Legislative Division of Post Audit, told the Legislative Post Audit Committee that the number of students the state counts for at-risk funding "appears to be significantly more than the number of students who may be eligible for the free lunch program." The audit examined how free-lunch eligibility is determined and how that count is used to allocate state at-risk funding.

The audit matters because Kansas school districts received roughly $563 million in at-risk and high-density at-risk funding in the 2024 school year, and the state allocates much of that money based on counts of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program. The audit found evidence that the state likely overpaid at-risk funding in 2024 and identified limitations that make a full accuracy check difficult.

Legislative auditors reviewed records for a random sample of 769 students who were listed as eligible for free lunches in the 2024 school year and focused verification work on the subset who submitted household income applications. For 122 students whose families submitted National School Lunch Program applications, auditors matched application information to state Department of Revenue tax records or Department of Labor wage data when available. Of the 108 verifiable applications, auditors concluded 68 did not appear to meet the income eligibility thresholds the applications claimed. The report projects that, among students who qualified by application, between roughly 52% and 74% likely were ineligible, and when those sample…