State Education Officials Trying To Fix $5.6 Million Accounting Error

Posted: 07 February, 2013

LINCOLN (AP) – State education officials say they’re correcting an Omaha Public Schools accounting error that resulted in a $5.6 million overpayment in special-education funding, which in turn short-changed every other public school district in Nebraska. The Nebraska Department of Education discovered the error while conducting a yearly financial review. Department finance director Shane Rhian said Tuesday that the district mistakenly claimed expenses from the state over a 2-year period that had already been reimbursed with federal stimulus money. The overpayments during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years resulted in less funding for other districts. For instance, state auditors found that Lincoln schools were underpaid by nearly $885,000.