Sumner school district must pay back $110,061 in state and federal safety net funds for special education programs that were over-allocated to the district during the 2008-2009 school year. That figure is the result of a state audit on federal dollars issued Monday and state dollar figures reported by district Spokesperson Ann Cook.

The district, which is already subject to a multimillion budget reduction for the next school year, owes $61,356 to the federal government, according to the audit.

Safety net funds are given to school districts that are unable to entirely pay for their special education programs with budget allocations determined by the state formula.

The audit examined the district’s reporting of the number of students receiving special education services.

The results found that the district had received the extra money based on a change in enrollment of special needs students after the award application at the beginning of the year. The district also received money for one student who withdrew prior to the end of the school year, resulting in an overpayment of $16,940. The district’s reporting was accurate at the time of the application, but its service need shrank due to the changes.

“Before the external audit, we were already doing some problem solving and staff retraining to address new reporting requirements (from a change to the Washington Administrative Code),” Cook said. “We are already putting some of those changes into affect.

“This was the first year that (the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction) asked the state to audit safety net funds. And as you can see, they uncovered some problems in reporting.”

The school district is changing its protocol to generate once-a-month reports of students benefitted by safety net funds.

District officials have not been notified yet as to when or how they will pay back the federal money. Discussions with the state are not final, but the district may have to pay back the state overpayment through withholdings from the special education budget, said Debbie Campbell, the district’s executive director of business services. The district did not receive safety net funds for the current school year.