Slippery Rock Area School District was overpaid $59,588 by the state, according to a recent audit report.

Paul Cessar, the school district's business manager, said the overpayment came as a result of a few mistaken categorizations of students during this year's regularly scheduled audit.

“We had several incidents miscategorizing students as foster students,” Cessar said. “They are now classified as regular students.”

Cessar explained that students have to meet certain criteria to be qualified as foster, or non-resident students, in Pennsylvania. Some stipulations are that the student's parent or guardian are also not residents of the education district, the student has to be placed in the private home of a resident of the district by order of a court or the agency of which the child is part, and the student cannot be in the preadoptive status.

According to a release by the Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General, it was found that the district failed to implement an internal control system regarding non-resident students. Cessar said in order to avoid the same mistake in the future, the school district is taking more preventative measures.

“We'll continue to seek out opportunities for ongoing training in these areas about what qualifies (a student),” Cessar said. “The state wants us to have more of a procedure and a checklist to see that they meet criteria.”

During this audit period, Cessar said they had an above average amount of students who are categorized as being in foster care and a few cases of students from out of state in foster care in Pennsylvania. “We'll have two or three (students) in a normal year,” Cessar said. “We had two this year come from far-off states, which hasn't happened before.”

According to Cessar, some issues can also occur if a student in the foster care system moves through the process of adoption by the foster parents.

“There needs to be better communication with agencies and parents when that happens,” Cessar said.

The $59,588 will have to be repaid.