Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, paid the federal government more than $2.1 million to settle allegations it misused AmeriCorps funds by recruiting its employees to serve as volunteers and falsely claiming participants qualified for tuition reimbursements.
The settlement with the Department of Justice, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, resolves a civil investigation under the False Claims Act and includes the stipulation that DPS does not admit any liability.
“Denver Public Schools used millions of federal dollars from AmeriCorps in ways that violated the basic rules of the AmeriCorps program,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Kirsch said in a statement. “Its misuse of those funds interfered with AmeriCorps’ core mission — to give students more educational resources.”
AmeriCorps is a federal service program that offers incentives, such as living allowances, education awards and other benefits, to people who volunteer with participating organizations. (The agency calls these volunteers “members.”) For example, AmeriCorps members were recruited to help public health agencies in Colorado conduct contact tracing during the pandemic.
The AmeriCorps program at DPS ended after a 2018 investigation by Serve Colorado — which administers the federal initiative in the state — determined the district violated regulations, including by recruiting paraprofessionals already working in its classrooms to serve as AmeriCorps members on top of their regular duties, according to its 10-page report.
The federal government alleges that when the district recruited existing employees for its AmeriCorps programs, it “improperly” counted the time the workers spent on their duties as district employees as service hours, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
DPS released a statement Tuesday saying the district acknowledged “allegations of non-compliance” were raised by the Justice Department regarding the 2015 and 2016 AmeriCorps grant years.
“However, DPS maintains its actions were in alignment with its core mission of educating youth,” the district said in its statement. “Once DPS became aware of certain irregularities, it paused the program, investigated practices and took steps to improve its procedures and processes.”
In its 2018 investigation, Serve Colorado found that paraprofessionals, who provide support in classrooms, also were performing other duties, including monitoring lunch periods and teaching entire classrooms when schools were understaffed. The latter violated regulations that say AmeriCorps members cannot displace employees.
Most of the volunteers that investigators interviewed “did not seem to have a good grasp of how AmeriCorps service fits into their role as DPS paraprofessionals besides the fact that they would receive an education award once they completed their AmeriCorps contract term,” the 2018 report found.
In 2015 and 2016, DPS falsely certified that volunteers had worked enough service hours to qualify for AmeriCorps education awards, which members can receive if they complete a specific number of service hours and other requirements, the federal government alleged.
The district had said paraprofessionals were eligible for education awards that amounted to $2,907 in tuition reimbursements, Chalkbeat Colorado reported following the 2018 investigation.
AmeriCorps handed out more than $858,600 in education awards based on DPS falsifying certifications for six of its programs, which the federal government alleges also were not eligible for the additional $557,200 in direct AmeriCorps funding they received, according to prosecutors.
“By enrolling teachers as AmeriCorps members, DPS deprived its at-risk students of the additional educational support they were entitled to receive from national service members,” AmeriCorps Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey said in a statement. “Double-counting teachers’ paid work as national service hours meant that the community received no net benefit from AmeriCorps funding.”
District employees that managed the AmeriCorps grants either resigned or were fired, according to prosecutors.
As part of the settlement, DPS also will pay for any outstanding education awards not yet distributed, which may total an additional $614,000, according to a Department of Justice news release.
DPS said it is using money from its reserves to pay the settlement, adding that the payment “will not impact educational programming for the upcoming school year.”
