Granite School District's $15.3 million in Title I funding faces a higher risk of waste and fraud after the U.S. Department of Education suspended its main oversight process, a federal watchdog found.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the report on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Canyons School District also operates five Title I elementary schools: Copperview, East Midvale, Midvale, Midvalley and Sandy. Title I is the federal government's primary funding stream for schools serving students from low-income families.

Nationally, Title I accounts for about two-thirds of the nearly $27 billion in fiscal year 2025 ESEA funding. The Education Department had fully implemented consolidated monitoring of that money in 2019 but suspended the process in 2026. As of August, the department had not provided a timeline for resuming reviews or details on any replacement.

The report, first reported by Stateline's Robbie Sequeira, noted that 32 of 51 states have not undergone consolidated monitoring since the process launched.

Whether Utah is among them is not stated in the report's publicly available summary.

The GAO said that without consolidated monitoring, the Education Department cannot systematically assess whether states comply with Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requirements or follow their approved state plans. The office recommended Congress spell out monitoring requirements in law, that the department resume comprehensive oversight, and that it fix chronic absenteeism data. The department agreed with one recommendation and disagreed with two.

How Title I funds reach local schools

At Granite's Aug. 4 board meeting, Dr. Joan Bramble presented a Title I update. The district's $15.3 million allocation sends 41% directly to schools, with the rest covering required and optional set-asides under federal rules.

Canyons' five Title I campuses continue to serve free breakfast and lunch, according to the district's June 2026 board summary. A total dollar figure for Canyons' Title I allocation was not available in public board records.

GAO flags unreliable absenteeism data

The GAO also found serious problems with how the federal government tracks chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more of school days. The department tells states to count absent students over an entire school year but to report enrollment based on a single date. That mismatch skews the numbers.

Some schools reported absenteeism rates above 100%. More than 30% of shared-time schools, where students split their day between campuses for career and technical education, had implausible rates in the 2022–2023 school year. Under 2% of other schools showed the same problem. Among schools designated for Comprehensive Support and Improvement, a federal category for low-performing schools, nearly 13% had rates exceeding 100%.

At least one-quarter of K-12 students nationwide were estimated to be chronically absent in recent years, the GAO reported. The Education Department cited chronic absenteeism as a key challenge as recently as February 2026.

The GAO conducted its audit from November 2024 through September 2026. No congressional hearing date or Education Department response deadline has been announced.