As part of International Fraud Awareness Week, we wanted to post some good year-round resources for schools on fraud and fraud prevention.
For more than 50 years, School and Student Services (SSS) has helped connect hundreds of thousands of students with an exceptional education. SSS provides a comprehensive need-based financial aid solution enabling you to collect the data you need with a time-tested fair and equitable approach, so you can reach the families that most need your help.
Our team at SSS knows how important it is to keep your parent, student, and financial information secure. As part of your private school’s own fraud protection, here are some key things schools can do to help reduce fraud within their system.
- Provide anti-fraud training for all employees and offer the training to your board members as well. Use internal controls in your school’s financial department including segregation of duties and in managing school fundraising money.
- Conduct a twice-yearly review of all your grants and donor funding and reconcile disbursements of those funds. Review all your fixed assets and track them for depreciation and ensure that all those assets are accounted for. These assets might include laptops, SMART boards, biology lab microscopes, and other valuable school assets.
- Make sure you have an internal control process for all cash received at fundraisers, school events, and school sales.
Finally, have a process for your staff, parents, and students to provide anonymous tips if they suspect fraud might have occurred. Having more than one way that fraud can be reported is valuable as well, including email tips, phone tips, or a place on your school’s portal to submit tips.
5 key resources for fraud prevention:
- 5 steps to prevent fraud
- 4 simple things you can do today to prevent fraud
- The Educator’s Guide to Student Data Privacy
- For more data and insight on fraud, you can also review full report from ACFE
If you’re interested in seeing a demo of SSS – please click here.
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