Mississippi commission approves temporary rule to tighten accreditation triggers over missing audits

The Mississippi Commission on School Accreditation voted Wednesday to seek a temporary rule and begin the Administrative Procedures Act process to revise Appendix H of the Mississippi Public School Accountability Standards, returning parts of the document to a two-consecutive-findings trigger for accreditation sanctions while adding clearer distinctions between minor and serious financial violations.

The change was approved during a special called meeting chaired by Pamela Manors, chair of the commission on school accreditation. Manors said the revisions are intended to address a backlog of missing audits and to give the agency clearer authority to act when districts face serious financial problems.

Agency presenters — including Dr. Paula Vanderford and Samantha Atkinson, director of the Bureau of Internal Audit — told commissioners that several districts are missing multiple audits. "I think we have somewhere around 17 school districts now that have 2 outstanding audit," Vanderford said, referring to missing FY2023 and FY2024 audits.…