ABC Child and Family Services is a large, non-profit agency that provides full-day child care services to some of its Head Start and Early Head Start children. A combination of parent co- pays, state child care reimbursements, and Head Start funds is used to cover the costs of the full-day service. The agency spans a vast geographic area, but administrative services are carried out from one centralized administration building. To make it easy for parents to pay for their share of child care costs, the agency allows payments to be made on-site where their children are served. Each of the 10 Head Start/child care centers is staffed with teachers, assistant teachers, and a team leader. Parents pay their child care costs by check or money order and occasionally with cash throughout the day to whomever is available when they drop

off their child. When cash is received, staff members send it to the central office at least weekly through someone who is going by the office. Families are supposed to mail checks and money orders to the central administrative office weekly, but invariably the central office staff ends up contacting 10 parents a week (on average), seeking their child care payments. Often, what is discovered is that a staff member has misplaced the checks or did not write a receipt of payment, which is the policy. In one particular center, the team leader has had trouble reconciling the centers petty cash and came to realize that its because teachers are using petty cash to make change when parents pay for child care with large denominations. What systems would you put into place to strengthen internal controls?

1. Define the problem/control issue
2. State why it's a problem/what could go wrong because of the issue
3. Classify the issue as control deficiency, significant deficiency, or material weakness based on the magnitude and likelihood of failure or potential failure
4. State whether it is a design deficiency or an operating deficiency based on how the control failed/how it could potentially fail
5. Make a recommendation to fix the issue
6. State how your recommendation will benefit the client/fix the problem.