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GAO-20-425PR 1 (2020-04-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaeaxy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States April 10, 2020 The Honorable Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202 Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Education Dear Secretary DeVos: The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the Department of Education's (Education) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your personal attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2019, we reported that on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made four years ago were implemented.2 Education's recommendation implementation rate was 70 percent. As of March 2020, Education had 96 open recommendations. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve agency operations. Since our April 2019 letter, Education has implemented three of eight priority recommendations. * The agency analyzed its Civil Rights Data Collection by school types (such as traditional neighborhood schools, charter schools, and magnet schools) and by school groupings (such as high and low black and Latino student enrollment) to further understand issues and patterns of disparities at K-12 schools. These efforts can enhance Education's ability to target oversight of, and technical assistance to, schools that need it most. * Regarding federal student loan Income-Driven Repayment plans, Education collected information on the potential causes and cost implications of borrower income recertification lapses. Also, the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act), enacted in December 2019, authorizes the agency to use certain data to automatically recertify borrowers' eligibility for IDR plans.3 Education is working with the Internal Revenue Service to automatically recertify borrower incomes and eliminate recertification lapses for these borrowers. * To strengthen oversight of postsecondary schools with respect to protecting student information, Education included information security requirements in its program reviews of these institutions. This will likely improve information security for students receiving financial aid. 1 Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or fragmentation, overlap, or duplication issue. 2 GAO, Performance and Accountability Report.- Fiscal Year 2019, GAO-20-1SP (Washington, D.C.: November 19, 2019). 3 See Pub. L. No. 116-91, § 4, 133 Stat 1189, 1192-1193 (2019). GAO-20-425PR Priority Recommendations: Education Page 1

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